File-sharing
networks to blame, Supreme Court orders
The US Supreme Court has ruled that
file-sharing companies are to blame for what users
do with their
software.
The surprise ruling could start
a legal assault on the creators of file-sharing
networks.
The unanimous ruling is a victory for recording companies
and film studios in what is widely seen as one of the
most important copyright cases in years. The legal
case against Streamcast Networks - which makes the
software behind Grokster and Morpheus - began in October
2001 when 28 media companies filed their legal complaint.
The complaint alleged that Streamcast was prospering
on the back of the unfettered piracy taking place on
the file-sharing networks.
However, the attempts to win damages suffered a series
of defeats as successive courts sided with the file-sharing
networks. The judges in those lower courts cited a
ruling made in 1984 over Sony's Betamax video recorder.
In that case, the Supreme Court said that the majority
of people using a video recorder for legal uses outweighed
any illegal use of the technology.
But in this latest ruling the judges reversed this
precedent and the lower court decisions, stating that
the makers of a technology have to answer for what
people
do with it if they use it to break the law.
US
plans to make own plutonium
The Bush administration is planning
the government's first production of plutonium 238
since the cold war, stirring debate over the risks
and benefits of the deadly material. The substance,
valued as a power source, is so radioactive that
a speck can cause cancer.
Federal officials say the program would produce a
total of 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National
Laboratory. Officials say the program could cost $1.5
billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous
and radioactive waste.
Project managers say that most if not all of the new
plutonium is intended for secret missions and they
declined to reveal any details.
Plutonium 238 can be turned into electricity, and
nuclear batteries made from the substance are best
known for powering spacecraft that go where sunlight
is too dim to energize solar cells. For instance, they
now power the Cassini probe exploring Saturn and its
moons.
Federal and private experts unconnected to the project
said the new plutonium would probably power devices
for conducting espionage on land and under the sea.
Environmentalists are scrutinizing the production
plan - made public last week - and considering whether
to fight it. They say the production effort is a potential
threat to nearby ecosystems, including Yellowstone
National Park, Grand Teton National Park and the area
around Jackson Hole.
Cable operators win ruling
The US Supreme Court recently
ruled that cable system operators do not have
to open their networks to competing broadband
internet service providers.
The "Brand X" ruling, which overturns an
earlier decision, represents a significant victory
for the US cable television industry and the Federal
Communications Commission.
The case, which has been watched closely by industry
groups who say it could help to shape the future of
broadband internet access, grew out of a 2002 FCC decision
that cable broadband was an "information service" and
not subject to open-access requirements under the 1996
Telecommunications Act
.
That decision was challenged in the courts by Brand
X Internet Services, a small internet service provider
based in Santa Monica, California.
The appeals court sided with Brand X.
The ruling is likely to hit independent internet service
providers hardest. "Unfortunately, today's ruling
is both anti-consumer and anti-competition," said
Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a leading
Democrat spokesman on communications issues.
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