MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 29, 2005 Decided June 27, 2005
Full case name	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., et al. v. Grokster, Ltd., et al.
Docket no.	04-480
Citations	545 U.S. 913 (more) 125 S. Ct. 2764; 162 L. Ed. 2d 781; 2005 U.S. LEXIS 5212; 75 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1001; 33 Media L. Rep. 1865; 18 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 547
Case history
Prior	Motion to dismiss denied, 243 F. Supp. 2d 1073 (C.D. Cal. 2003); summary judgment granted in part to defendants, 259 F. Supp. 2d 1029 (C.D. Cal. 2003); plaintiffs' motion to dismiss counterclaims granted in part, 269 F. Supp. 2d 1213 (C.D. Cal. 2003); affirmed, 380 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2004); cert. granted, 543 U.S. 1032 (2004).
Subsequent	Remanded, 419 F.3d 1005 (9th Cir. 2005); summary judgment opinion on remand, 454 F. Supp. 2d 966 (C.D. Cal. 2006).
Holding
Producers of technology who promote the ease of infringing on copyrights can be sued for inducing copyright infringement committed by their users. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated and remanded.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Souter, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Ginsburg, joined by Rehnquist, Kennedy
Concurrence	Breyer, joined by Stevens, O'Connor
Laws applied
Copyright Act of 1976

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled unanimously that the defendants, peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast (maker of Morpheus), could be held liable for inducing copyright infringement by users of their file sharing software.^[1] The plaintiffs were a consortium of 28 entertainment companies, led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.