Lawyers Just Don't Grok It

29 March 2005

DISCLAIMER: I believe that—more often than not—lawyers earn money by introducing confusion where there was none.

Should the manufacturer of a fence used to hold pets without food or water be held liable for the fence owner’s abuses? Should the manufacturer of a pickup truck be held liable in a case where one person drags another to his death? Should the manufacturer of a pot or pan be held liable when someone uses the implement to cook up an illegal substance? Should one who makes a router be held accountable for illegal file swapping or downloading?

Grokster is in no more libelous a position than the installer of the ethernet cables connecting a computer to a network gateway.

Grok – to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.

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