SUPREME COURT ASKED TO REVIEW FILE-SHARING

Here comes the judgment… or not.

A coalition of movie and music orgs, state attorneys general, legal professors, legal online entertainment services and copyright owners urged the U.S. Supreme Court today to review a lower court ruling that found unauthorized file-sharing services Grokster and Morpheus not responsible for the massive theft occurring on their networks.

In October, the original plaintiffs in the case, the major motion picture studios (MPAA) and record companies (RIAA), along with the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) formally asked the Supreme Court to grant "certiorari"—or consen—to hearing an appeal of the 9th Circuit ruling from August. Monday is the deadline for amici ("friends of the court") to file their briefs in support of the plaintiff’s petition to the Supreme Court.

Among those who filed briefs are the Director’s Guild of America, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the Screen Actors Guild, VSDA and the Writer’s Guild of America, among others.

Among the recording artists who expressed their feelings are members of the Eagles, Fleetwod Mac, the Grateful Dead, the Dixie Chicks, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, Babyface, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffett and Patty Loveless.

Also registering briefs were MusicNet, Napster and Netflix, law professors from Loyola, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, among others.

Attorneys General from a total of 41 states also filed briefs to the Court.

Two weeks ago, the L.A. Times broke a story reporting Sony BMG was hooking up with file-sharing service Grokster to create a new, legitimate P2P service in Mashboxx, to be headed by ex-Grokster President Wayne Rosso.