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Morpheus Issues Its Own Legal Challenge

Accused of allowing users to distribute pirated content, peer-to-peer service is fighting back in court.

By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News   

Lawyers for StreamCast Networks, the company behind the popular peer-to-peer software Morpheus, have asked a Los Angeles federal court to rule that the distribution of the software does not violate copyright law, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Monday.

StreamCast Networks' request comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the company by twenty-eight major entertainment companies which claim that Morpheus allows users to pirate their content.

In the company's motion for a summary judgment, StreamCast asked the court to approve the legal distribution of Morpheus, saying that the software is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. Furthermore, StreamCast said that it cannot control the actions of its users, the EFF said.

The San Francisco-based civil liberties group is helping represent the Franklin, Tennessee, company in its case, and said that additional briefs will be filed in coming months and oral arguments are set for December 2, 2002.

Not Alone

Morpheus is not alone in its fight to be deemed legitimate, as P-to-P services Grokster and Kazaa are also fighting lawsuits over copyright infringement.

While the services claim that they have no control over their users' actions, that argument did not go far for now-defunct Napster.

However, the fact that the new generation of P-to-P services have no central servers sets them apart from Napster and may aid them in their battle because they can claim that they have no control over what files are swapped.

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