The long awaited peer to peer search tool eXeem is now in public beta. With all the lawsuits and copyright holders going after p2p networks, users and even developers , I do not know if this was a good move on the now defunct Suprnova site.

The Grokster vs. MGM is scheduled for opening statements March 29th, and will determine the future of p2p. The crux of the Grokster defense represented by EFF said,

“The lower court rulings were based on the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the 1984 Sony Betamax case, which determined that Sony was not liable for copyright violations by users of the Betamax VCR,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) which is representing Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks.
The ruling for the 1984 can be found here.

It will boil down to if developers of p2p software should be held liable for other peoples' actions. In California, there is a bill to make it a crime to develop software that does not contain proper copyright filters . The proposal can be found here.

The bill comes as much of the technology world is waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the legal status of file-swapping technology.

Federal courts have twice ruled that peer-to-peer software companies are not legally responsible for the illegal actions of people using their products. Hollywood studios and record companies appealed those decisions to the nation's top court, which is expected to rule on the issue this summer.
Kind of redundant when there is going to be a runing around July, but if you are a copyright holder and losing money, any stopgap in the p2p frenzy would be good. However, there is a problem in all of the maddness:

Once it starts, it is very difficult to stop, and if the courts rule in Grokster's favor, that means copyright holders will have a VERY difficult time tracking individual users distributing illegal files, but that's the way it should be because not everybody on a p2p network is sharing illegal files just like not everybody is selling bootleg betamax tapes from the boot of a car. The question is, will the minority be the champion for the majority?