"The music business will transform," he said. "Prices of online music will get cheaper, and consumer user rules will be liberalized."

Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson's decision yesterday "is significant in part because it breaks the wave of copyright holders prevailing in their claims on new mass-media types of infringement," said Megan E. Gray, a Washington lawyer who specializes in intellectual property. "Upon scrutiny, the [plaintiffs'] case breaks down in several places and they cannot prevail."

....Gray and Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig said the ruling probably will hold up. Further, Lessig pointed out, Wilson's ruling put the ball back in the hands of lawmakers, which Lessig applauded.

"When technology changes the way content is distributed, it is up to Congress and not the courts" to make the laws, Lessig said.

"Hollywood sought to control what innovators can make available to consumers," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represents Morpheus. "This ruling makes clear that technology companies can provide general purpose tools without fear of copyright liability."

....Morpheus and Grokster differ from Napster in that Napster used a centralized server and song-index system, which meant it could be held directly accountable for the actions of its users. Since Napster's demise, file-sharing systems such as Morpheus have moved to decentralized servers, which removes their liability, the judge ruled. If Napster was a song warehouse, Morpheus is a bloodhound: Users ask for songs, and Morpheus shows where those songs are stored on other users' computers.

LA Times:

Faced with those difficulties, the music industry ought to focus instead on making fee-based online alternatives appealing enough to wean the public from free sites, some analysts said Friday. The fledgling music and movie services supported by the industry have only a small fraction of the audience that the file-sharing networks do, in part because of the restrictions the labels and studios impose in the name of deterring piracy.

Wilson's ruling could end up boosting the sanctioned entertainment services by triggering more promotional efforts and more user-friendly features.

Grokster attorney Michael Page predicted that two services wholly or partially owned by the major labels, MusicNet and Pressplay, would "get serious about distributing a wider range of content at a reasonable price." The services also will come under pressure to develop anti-piracy measures that work without driving users away, he said.

....the ruling could invite more entrepreneurs to launch and promote free file-sharing systems, which haveoperated largely in the Internet underground. And by giving Morpheus and Grokster the court's stamp of legitimacy, it could make both more attractive to the blue-chip advertisers that had avoided them.

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