Demaestro - 5:50 pm on May 27, 2010 (gmt 0)

Amicus Curiae has been a part of the USA court system for a long time. I am not sure why you are all freaking out, this ruling will affect sites with user generated content and these sites are letting the court know this.

There have been many "friend of the court" filings and they rarely imply collusion, in fact there are many, many cases where rivals and competitors have a shared interest in the outcome of a court case and band together for the purposes of protecting their interests. It is transparent and a just way of businesses protecting their interests, at least these aren't backroom deals.