Normally I am not rooting for file sharing programs, but in this case I have to make an exception. As this article points out, if Grokster loses their legal fight, it could have negative effect on a number of P2P technologies down the road.

As the MGM vs. Grokster case heads before the US Supreme Court tomorrow for oral arguments, a content producer has decided to throw his considerable financial weight behind the peer-to-peer file-sharing application. Billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns HD broadcast network HDNet in addition to the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, will help fund Grokster’s legal fight against other content creators. In a post on his blog, Cuban explained the rationale behind his decision.

If Grokster loses, technological innovation might not die, but it will have such a significant price tag associated with it, it will be the domain of the big corporations only.

It wont (sic) be a good day when high school entrepreneurs have to get a fairness opinion from a technology oriented law firm to confirm that big music or movie studios wont (sic) sue you because they can come up with an angle that makes a judge believe the technology might impact the music business. It will be a sad day when American corporations start to hold their US digital innovations and inventions overseas to protect them from the RIAA, moving important jobs overseas with them.

Are the stakes really that great? To say that this is the most important copyright case to make it to the SCOTUS since the original Betamax decision is not much of an exaggeration. It is an argument made by those on either side of the case. According to the content producers represented by the RIAA and MPAA, the existence of P2P networks causes them irrepairrable financial harm, as they have lost billions in sales over the years since such networks gained popularity. [Read the rest]