It’s a unanimous victory for the entertainment industry plaintiffs — but actually not quite as one-sided as all that. The full court says: even if you meet the Sony standard (i.e., even if you have “substantial noninfringing uses”), you can still be liable for inducing copyright infringement, if there’s evidence that you actively encouraged or promoted infringing conduct. And there is such evidence in this case.
More interestingly, though, the Court is split on the question: Caqn you be liable for distributing file-sharing software if you are NOT actively inducing/encouraging/promoting its use for infringing purposes. Three Justices (Ginsburg, Rehnquist, Kennedy) say: Yes, you can, if the product is primarily used for infringement. three of the Justices (Breyer, Stevens, O’Connor) say: No, you can’t, as long as there’s evidence that the product is capable of being used in a noninfringing way.
So it’s a 3-3 split on that question. The other 3 Justices (Scalia, Souter, Thomas) take no position on this (on the grounds that it’s not necessary to decide *this* case, where there is such evidence of inducement/encouragement. Though there is a footnote in which they seem to suggest that they’re on the Breyer side of the line. Footnote 12 (thanks to Michael Froomkin for pointing this out to me):
“Of course, in the absence of other evidence of intent, a court would
be unable to find contributory infringement liability merely based on a
failure to take affirmative steps to prevent infringement, if the device
otherwise was capable of substantial noninfringing uses. Such a
holding would tread too close to the Sony safe harbor.”
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