Hot on the heels of that 'friend of the court' action signed by key industry associations from across the global entertainments industry in support of film studios MGM in their legal fight against P2P company Grokster, now 54 prominent recording artists have put weight behind the campaign to persuade the American
Supreme Court to hold the key P2P firms liable for the copyright violation their technology allows.
As previously reported - a lot - those companies continually make the so called 'Betamax plea' when accused of liability for copyright theft - that is to say, because their software does have legitimate use, they cannot be held liable if the public then choose to use it for illegal file sharing (unlike the original Napster, newer P2P networks have no central database of files being shared, so the P2P creator does not know what files are traveling across the network their software created).
The courts, and most recently the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the MGM / Grokster case, have generally accepted that plea.
However the entertainments industry hope to have one last stab at persuading the courts to turn down that plea when that case reaches the Supreme Court this Spring.
Adding their support to that bid in another 'friend of the court' statement organised by America's National Academy of Recording Arts &
Sciences and the Recording Artists' Coalition were, among others, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Gavin Rossdale, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie
Raitt, the Dixie Chicks, Stevie Nicks, Reba McEntire, **Avril
Lavigne, Dido, Tom Jones, Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Brian
Wilson** and members of Barenaked Ladies.
It remains to be seen if such high level support can change the court's viewpoint - many reckon only by Congress changing the law can the Betamax plea be overruled.