Aimster Appeal Filed in Seventh Circuit
Aimster Appeal Filed in Seventh Circuit
March 18, 2003
Aimster Appeal Brief Filed. Case involves rights of innovators to create ...
The basic issue here is, will Big Media be allowed to control the Internet because they control a relatively small number of copyrights.
Or, alternatively, will innovators be permitted to create online commerce at a rapid pace.
We're arguing that Aimster is not similar to Napster. OK, I admit that Shawn and I have similar nicknames, but that's about as far as it goes.
Aimster is a significant innovation in online commerce - and different from Napster - because:
1) Users can post in their user profiles not just music but anything they want - including merely verbal descriptions of themselves, that don't allow any downloads at all.
2) Any file that is posted must be protected by encryption, and can only be decrypted by a private network of buddies. Aimster does not allow public distribution of unencrypted content - this is different from Napster and all the other file-sharing services.
3) Anyone can host the Aimster private messaging service - including you or I. But whoever hosts it has no control over the private messaging.
I hope these points came through in our appeal brief. The decision we're appealing granted the copyright holders a truly sweeping injunction.
For example, the injunction says that all licensees of Aimster must prevent all access to their computers.
But there are millions of users of the software who are all licensees, including me. So all of us must prevent all access to our computers. In other words, I must prevent access to this blog.
Of course, Blogs are a kind of messaging service, and new technologies are coming to allow file-sharing through blogs. Could copyright holders control blogs next?
