“A group of 25 entertainment companies filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court today [October 10], asking the Court to re-write copyright law principles that establish when high-tech companies can be held liable for the copyright infringements of their customers.

The petition asks the Supreme Court to overturn the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in MGM v. Grokster, where the court ruled that Grokster and StreamCast Networks were not liable for the infringements committed by people using their software to share copyrighted works. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is counsel for StreamCast in the case.

“The entertainment industry petition is a frontal attack on the Betamax doctrine and threatens innovators of every stripe,” said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann, who argued the MGM v. Grokster case before the Ninth Circuit. The Betamax doctrine takes its name from a landmark 1984 Supreme Court case involving the Sony Betamax VCR. Often described as the Magna Carta of the technology industry, the Betamax doctrine makes it clear that innovators need not fear ruinous litigation from the entertainment industry so long as their inventions are “merely capable of substantial noninfringing uses.” “