For Immediate Release

June 27, 2005

Contact: Judith Platt
Ph: 202-220-4551
Email: jplatt@publishers.org

AAP Applauds the Supreme Court's Grokster Decision

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) cheered the decision handed down by the Supreme Court today regarding copyright infringement on file-sharing networks. AAP participated in the case through an amicus brief. The Court's decision signals a move towards greater copyright protections by allowing for culpability of those software distributors who induce copyright violations.

All nine justices agreed to vacate the Ninth Circuit decision and remand to the district court for a more correct application of the Court's earlier Sony "Betamax" ruling on secondary liability standards.

AAP applauds this important victory for copyright protection in the digital environment, based on the Supreme Court's unanimous view that the Ninth Circuit and, earlier, the district court for the Northern District of California, were wrong to support a grant of summary judgment to Grokster and StreamCast in the face of what the Court found to be "unmistakable" evidence in the "words and deeds" of the software distributors that "shows a purpose to cause and profit from third-party acts of copyright infringement."

The Court's clarification of the evidentiary showing needed to demonstrate when the manufacturers or distributors of a product have "induced" copyright infringement should prove helpful to copyright owners in dealing with the capability for infringement that is inherent in peer-to-peer networks and other digital technologies.

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP's members include most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses, and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, computer software, and electronic products and services.

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