Judge says Morpheus encourages piracy

In another blow to peer-to-peer file sharing, a U.S. federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Morpheus software program encouraged users to infringe upon copyrighted works.

StreamCast Networks, the owner of Morpheus, “cannot seriously argue that it did not know that the popular music and movies traded on its network were copyrighted,” wrote U.S. district judge Stephen V. Wilson.

The ruling is another win for record and film companies, which sought an injunction against distribution of the file-sharing software in the suit, filed in 2001.

StreamCast continued to fight after two other companies named in the suit, Grokster and Sharman Networks, the company behind the Kazaa file-sharing client, reach settlements with the entertainment industry. StreamCast said it could consider appealing, saying the software has legal uses.

“We do not believe that StreamCast encouraged users to infringe on copyrighted works, and the company never intended to do so,” the company said in a statement.

File-sharing software companies have been battered by a string of successful legal suits by the entertainment industry. In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court found that both StreamCast and Grokster could be held liable for copyright infringements by users.

Earlier this month, MetaMachine, which distributed the eDonkey client software, settled a copy infringement case with the record industry for $30 million.

Just weeks prior, Sharman Networks agreed to pay $100 million to end outstanding lawsuits with the entertainment industry.

Major record companies and movies studios have used aggressive legal tactics against illegal file sharing, suing both software companies and individual users, in an effort to halt falling revenues attributed to piracy.