SecureXperts takes a position on P2P file sharing

The Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) last week filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court in the MGM v. Grokster case and participated in a related press conference at Public Knowledge. DCIA Member Grokster is a Respondent in this case.

The DCIA was one of twenty-five parties supporting the Respondents.

Other organizations filing in their support included the Consumer Electronics Association, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Home Recording Rights Coalition, Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, US Telecom Association, US Internet Industry Association, American Conservative Union, National Taxpayers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press, Public Knowledge, Eagle Forum, Educational Defense Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, National Library Associations, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, Creative Commons, National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys, Free Software Foundation, New Yorkers for Fair Use, and National Venture Capital Association.

Companies that filed in support of the Respondents included DCIA Members Altnet and Sharman Networks, as well as Intel, AT&T, BellSouth, MCI, SAVVIS, SBC, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, and several emerging technology companies.

Academicians were well represented by researchers Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf, professors Edward Lee, Peter Shane, and Peter Swire, Charles Nesson, Internet law professors W. Fisher III, J. Zittrain and J. Palfrey, Jr., professor Glynn Lunney, Malla Pollack and other law professors, computer science professors, media studies professors, innovation scholars and economists, 60 technology law professors and USACM.

A number of musical artists also filed in their support, backed by DCIA Members Rap Station and Sovereign Artists.

We are especially grateful to DCIA Member Seamless P2P's President Luke Rippy and Darnell Washington, CEO of SecureXperts, for speaking at the press conference on the value of P2P technologies similar to those of Grokster to government agencies, educational institutions, and Fortune 500 corporations.

Luke discussed decentralized P2P tools that have improved enterprise efficiency in such areas as group collaboration, secure instant messaging, voice over IP communications, multi-user text messaging, file transfer, and secure IP video.

Darnell added examples of educational uses of P2P in statistical research, medical and industrial product development, design and architecture, and governmental uses of P2P in national security, service continuity, and disaster planning.

DCIA Members span all sectors of the distributed computing industry, including content providers, software developers and distributors, and service-and-support companies. The DCIA and its Members have an important stake in the outcome of the MGM v. Grokster case.

In just the few short years that P2P technologies have been made available to the public, DCIA Members have begun to build successful and profitable businesses that depend on the distributed computing properties of P2P.

Without the Sony-Betamax standard, which was set by the Supreme Court more than two decades ago and has informed technology development ever since, many of our Members would be unable to continue their innovative work.

Banning Respondents' software not only would stifle innovation, it would maintain an inefficient entertainment distribution monopoly in the hands of a few major Hollywood interests, who have demonstrated a pattern of initially rejecting innovations in distribution technologies before ultimately adopting them and enjoying resurgent growth through new business models.

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