9th Circuit: Theft? Why Should Statutory Rights Cover New Technology?

(Forwarded from Boing Boing blog)

-----Original Message-----
From: Cory Doctorow <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 05:04:33 -0800


Judge Noonan, one of the Ninth Circuit judges who listened to the 
Morpheus case in which the legality of building a tool without the 
entertainment industry's permission -- and hence the future of the 
Internet -- is being decided directed this blast at Ramos, the attorney 
arguing the entertainment industry's side:

	"Let me say what I think your problem is. You can use these 
harsh terms ["piracy," "theft"], but you are dealing with something 
new, and the question is, does the statutory monopoly that Congress has 
given you reach out to that something new. And that's a very debatable 
question. You don't *solve* it by calling it 'theft.' You have to show 
why this court should extend a statutory monopoly to cover the new 
thing. *That's* your problem. Address *that* if you would. And curtail 
the use of abusive language."

EFF is now hosting the entire argument in the case as an MP3, which is 
in the public domain. My cow-orker Donna Wentworth sums up some other 
good linkage in her blog post:

http://www.copyfight.org/20040201.shtml#68645"

Posted by Cory Doctorow to Boing Boing Blog (http://boingboing.net/) at 
2/5/2004 05:03:57