Testing Copyright Limits

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grouper12apr12.story

Testing Copyright Limits
Grouper's creators say it's not like other file-sharing programs. The entertainment industry isn't so sure.
By Jon Healey
Times Staff Writer

April 12, 2005

<snip>Then Urban hit on a software program called Grouper. And in addition to movies of her nephew, Grouper offers Urban, who specializes in copyright law, insight into how technology is testing the boundaries of copyright in a digital age.

Like Kazaa and other popular file-sharing programs, Grouper allows Urban to copy movies and pictures of young Peter directly from her brother and sister-in-law's computer without worrying about formats or oversized e-mail attachments. Unlike those global networks with millions of users, though, Grouper also lets Urban pick and choose with whom she shares online — and sets a strict limit of 30 people per group.<snip>

Grouper Network Inc.'s founders, Josh Felser and Dave Samuel, say the built-in limits of their peer-to-peer software make it a poor substitute for more controversial file-sharing programs such as Kazaa and Grokster, which are hotbeds for piracy. In addition to limiting the size and accessibility of groups, they say, their program requires songs to be streamed — that is, played through the Internet — not downloaded.<snip>

Grouper, by contrast, is part of an emerging trend in the file-sharing world to let people swap digital goods with a limited audience of invited guests. Even if the justices rule against Grokster and StreamCast, their decision will not necessarily affect these more constrained approaches.<snip>

Urban of USC said Grouper appeared to have been designed to fit into several exemptions that copyright law provides for nonprofit or educational uses. "They really have mined the Copyright Act for all the opportunities for sharing digital files," she said. <snip>

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Hhhhmmmmmmm, but what's this in ur DU profile?