See John Borland, File Swapping Shifts Up a Gear (May 27, 2003), available at http://news.com.com/2100-1026-1009742.html, (last visited December 2, 2003). Unlike Napster, which relied upon a centralized communication architecture to identify the .mp3 files available for download, the current generation of P2P file sharing programs allow an internet user to search directly the .mp3 file libraries of other users; no web site is involved. See Douglas Lichtman & William Landes, Indirect Liability for Copyright Infringement: An Economic Perspective, 16 Harv. J. Law & Tech. 395, 403, 408-09 (2003). To date, owners of copyrights have not been able to stop the use of these decentralized programs. See Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 259 F.Supp.2d 1029 (C.D.Cal.2003) (<HOLDING>). The RIAA now has begun to direct its
holding that while the computer program at issue was within the subject matter of copyright the right sought under state law pursuant to a license was not equivalent to the exclusive rights under copyright as such copyright preemption did not apply holding grokster not eontributorily liable for copyright infringement by users of its p2p file sharing program holding that the plaintiff must prove that the end users directly infringed its patent in order to succeed on its claim of contributory infringement holding that conversion and unjust enrichment claims were preempted by the copyright act since they were not qualitatively different from a copyright claim because they contained no extra element beyond those necessary to show copyright infringement holding companies contributorily liable for copyright infringement for facilitating users transmissions of unauthorized digital copies of copyrighted works