] In a hotly contested lawsuit before a federal appeals ] court, two peer-to-peer companies are about to gain a ] vast army of allies: America's librarians. ] ] The five major U.S. library associations are planning to ] file a legal brief Friday siding with Streamcast Networks ] and Grokster in the California suit, brought by the major ] record labels and Hollywood studios. The development ] could complicate the Recording Industry Association of ] America's efforts to portray file-swapping services as ] rife with spam and illegal pornography. ] ] According to an attorney who has seen the document, the ] brief argues that Streamcast--distributor of the Morpheus ] software--and Grokster should not be shut down. It asks ] the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the April ] decision by a Los Angeles judge that dismissed much of ] the entertainment industry's suit against the two ] peer-to-peer companies. ] ] Among the groups signing the brief are the American ] Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research ] Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the ] Medical Library Association and the Special Libraries ] Association. The American Civil Liberties Union, in one ] of the group's first forays into copyright law, has ] drafted the brief opposing the Motion Picture Association ] of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association ] of America (RIAA). Librarians to the rescue! BusinessWeek Online: News from C|Net.com |