Mark Cuban Explains Why Grokster Is Worth Supporting Any Way Possible

from the saving-innovation dept

While most of the coverage of Mark Cuban's latest announcement focuses on the fact that he recently agreed to fund the EFF's legal defense of Grokster at the Supreme Court, reading his full statement on the matter is much more interesting. It's not about the fact that he's helping out, but goes into the details of what's at stake -- and why everyone should support the Grokster case, however they can. What he's saying (in somewhat different words) is that, if the entertainment industry wins, they'll have succeeded in turning the internet in the US into television: a medium where they are the sole gatekeepers of the content and what can be done with it. That ignores the fact that the internet is about communications, not broadcast content -- where anyone can create the content they want and deliver it however they want. Mark Cuban is creating a ton of content and he wants that "content to get to the customer in the way the customer wants to receive it, when they want to receive it, at a price that is of value to them." He can do that now. He can't if the entertainment industry wins the Grokster case, because they'll cut off many of the channels by which content now reaches people.