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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 4950742" data-attributes="member: 15538">Can anybody? It created an important test for future cases. The deciding factor there seems to be that Grokster was marketed in such a way as to promote infringement, rather than for its legitimate uses. You can slice a grain of rice with a precedent that narrow. Very interesting stuff.I may not be a second year law student, but I will tel you this - Second year law students are probably the worst people to ask about the future of IP law. A little knowledge, as they say, is a dangerous thing. IANAL, but this topic in particular is of importance to me, and I can tell you right now that anyone who thinks copyright law for the 21st century has been settled is fooling themselves. This is the basis for copyright law:So the real test for any copyright law is not simply whether it secures the righs of the author, but that by doing so their endeavors are made available to the public. Certainly, the rights of the author do not extend as far as dictating how a person enjoys a particular work. Deciding cases on which files are made into electronic backups and so forth requires a balancing of concerns. So in my view, removing PDFs of out of print games, specifically to make them unavailable, invalidates the constitutional basis for copyright and hence the case for infringment. While a commercial purpose does not have to be established, it must be shown that an author's right to benefit from a work has been infringed. Removing PDFs from availability simply to avoid paying for site maintenance is not a use reserved to the author, but simply a practical decision. The case for infringement would probably have to establish that the files had some potential value other than being distributed for free that outweighs the public benefit of access to historically and academically and recreationally valuable vintage gaming products.</blockquote>

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