Summary
Grokster is a file sharing website and software that was used by multiple users to download music. Up to 90% of the music downloaded using Grokster was illegal (according to the prosecution). One major issue in this case was a previous ruling of the supreme court in sony v. Universal Studios. The issue was that VCRs were being used to make illegal copies, but the supreme court ruled that it was not the VCR distributors fault for the illegal uses of their product. This made up the primary case for the defense. Grokster appeared in court for the first time in a Los Angeles court in April, 2003, where judge Stephen Wilson ruled in favor of Grokster. However, the MPAA and the IRAA (who Grokster beat in the first trial) appealed the decision. In August, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit offered an official statement supporting Grokster. Despite this, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case in December 2004. The supreme court ruled, in March, 2005, that Grokster was illegal and forced it to shutdown. The shutdown was only temporary as Grokster resurfaced as a legitimate site with the proper music licenses.
Analysis
The case against Grokster is similar to a couple of the points in Rebecca Tushnets essay in two primary ways. The first is the idea of attribution and the second refers to the effects of widespread access.
Tushnet says that fans do not expect that the author of the vid is the original creator of the work that they are using. She uses the example of when fanvids use images of Captain Kirk and Superman, the viewer or audience does not really expect or believe that the author of the vid made up that particular characters. They are not taking credit away even though it does not include a disclaimer. The same idea applies to Grokster. Even though they do not include a disclaimer for each file, they are not trying to take credit for the lyrics.
Tushnet also talks about how technology has changed fanvids as well as music sharing. Since the widespread access of fast internet connections, it is very easy to distribute media, particularly music files, from one person to another. In comparison, since more people have faster internet access, more are inclined to download music and gain access to media more quickly. People will often use sites like Grokster to attain this music in the fastest way possible.
Despite these similarities between Grokster and fan fiction, there are still differences between the two. They are different in that File sharing, using tools such as Grokster, keeps the work in the original form. However, fan vidding usually involves the author adding some of his or her own work to the orginial context of the work.
