Information Country

Grokster fought the law and the law won. Having lost in a
Supreme Court ruling, Grokster has shut down and settled with
the recording and movie industry.

Grokster - Rest In Peace

Facing up to a Supreme Court decision against them, Grokster has
settled with the music and movie industries. The company has
agreed to pay $50 million dollars in damages and terminate its
file file-sharing system. A visit to the Grokster site now shows
one page noting the ruling and the intention of the company to
come up with a legal alternative.

The decision of the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster was a
surprise too much of the legal community. Lower courts had
almost universally found in favor of Grokster using a theory
validated in the 1970s cases involving VCR machines. In those
cases, courts noted the makers of VCR machines could not be held
responsible for the actions of users. The crux of the argument
was the machine could be used for both legal and illegal
purposes, so liability could not be found.

In deciding against Grokster, a unanimous Supreme Court upheld
this legal theory. However, the Court noted Grokster had
actively promoted itself as a method for pursuing file sharing,
an act the Court found to constitute copyright infringement. As
such, the Court ruled that Grokster could be found liable for
copyright infringement. The decision effectively killed Grokster
as a business entity.

File Sharing Impact

Although Grokster bit the dust, much of the file-sharing
industry continues to function. Companies such as Morpheus
continue to do big business and fight the entertainment
industry. This is made possible by the Grokster decision, which
requires the entertainment industry to show intent to promote
copyright infringement on the part of companies such as Grokster
and Morpheus. Arguably, Grokster could start a new service
tomorrow and avoid problems so long as it didn’t promote illegal
file sharing as a benefit of its service.

File sharing on the Internet is not dead. The entertainment
industry is in for a big surprise if it thinks this changes
anything. Indeed, Mashboxx is rumored to be positioning itself
to buy the assets of Grokster. Hmmm…

There’s no doubt that free MP3 download files are the most downloaded products from the Internet — whether they are movies, songs, music videos, instrumentals, or what-have-you. This is probably because most of these files are available for free download or peer-to-peer sharing. Obviously, this is way better than having to spend a few dollars on an audio recording album where we’re not even sure if we’re going to like all the songs it contains.

Free MP3 downloads are kind of like the free food sampling booths you find in grocery stores. After you listen in to a few songs of a newly-released album and find that you like them, then you could go on ahead and buy the real album. When you think about it, free MP3 downloads are not bad options at all.

There are many sites that offer free Mp3 downloads for listeners who want to hear new music released by established artists or listen to unheard-of music from unsigned bands or musicians. Below are a few of these sites where you can find free MP3 downloads.

Free MP3 Downloads: MP3Downloadz.co.uk

MP3Downloadz.co.uk is one of the leading online music communities that offer free MP3 downloads for music lovers like you. Here you can get a chance to sample some catchy songs from upcoming new artists and latest hits of the more established artists like Depeche Mode, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, Eminem, Britney, and more. Get completely loco with free MP3 downloads from such latinos as Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Alejandro Sanz, and plenty more. Then get more free MP3 downloads and groove to the beat of bluegrass, Louisiana blues, reggae, Caribbean music, bossa nova, et cetera. At MP3Downloadz.co.uk, you are sure to find all the free MP3 downloads you need from every known genre in music.

Free MP3 Downloads: AmpCast.com

Have you ever wondered what “surreal radio” sounds like? Well, at this site, you’ll find your answer. AmpCast offers a wide variety of free MP3 downloads, such as music, videos, radio, and more. AmpCast’s Surreal Radio is a never-before heard Internet radio that is hosted by C J Wray. At this free MP3 download site, you can interact with other music fans at their lively discussion forums and chatrooms and then get to win free prizes. Signing up for a free MP3 download account at AmpCast is as easy as one, two, three. Once you’re down, you can even edit and customize your own playlists for greater hearing pleasure. There’s nothing like a “sound vacation” at AmpCast.

There are several more sites that offer free MP3 downloads. Those mentioned above are but the tip of the iceberg.

Happy Downloading!