You can’t keep your house, but they can keep their music
In another astonishing decision, SCOTUS has basically gutted both the “Fair Use” clause of the Copyright Act, and the Betamax decision.
To wit: it is now determined that the makers of products that CAN be used for the illegal transfer of intellectual or artistic property can be held liable for infringement if they didn’t do enough to prevent their programs from being used for such infringing activites.
This is bad in so many ways I don’t know where to begin.
First, your iPod is now in trouble. The record companies allege that you do NOT have an affirmative right under the Copyright Act to transfer compact discs that you own to another medium for your own personal use. Expect them to sue Apple to make it so that iTunes can no longer “rip” CDs for copying onto the iPod.
Your grokster/Kazaa/BitTorrent is in trouble too. The various entertainment industries allege that the primary purpose of those programs is the promotion of piracy. So much for that.
And since the ISPs tend to have deep pockets, they are gonna get busted for not taking steps to block these protocols. Hell, they may even be the primary consirator here, by making so much bandwidth available so cheaply to so many!
Then there’s the wonderful “Law of Unintended Consequences”. It won’t be difficult to get those state court decisions barring lawsuits for vicarious liability against gun manufacturers tossed. And all kinds of new vicarious liabilities will be invented to transfer more wealth from producers to lawyers.
I no longer recognize my country, thanks to this Supreme Court and its recent decisions.
I don’t own my house, I don’t own my music, and soon, I won’t own my gun.
And most important, I won’t own me.