Hours after U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered an injunction that would have shut down the site, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed, or stopped, the injunction. The appeals court has ordered both companies to file legal briefs on the subject in the coming weeks. While the opinion of home Internet users may not affect a legal proceeding, the poll is a reminder that current copyright law may not be directly applicable to the questions that have arisen due to technological change. In contrast to property and contractual disputes, copyright law is statutory in nature and is designed for the exigencies of the time it was enacted. If the distribution methods of expressive works change, there is no rationale for why copyright law should remain static.
Uncertainty shrouds the legal parameters of digital music swapping.
Copyright law should not be a straightjacket to technological change. Laws should reflect the economic realities of present technology. Law designed for other purposes will lead to inevitable market inefficiencies and dead weight losses.