As of November 7, 2005, Grokster, the much-beleaguered file-sharing service, is no longer in operation. Grokster's Web site says:

The United States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal. Copying copyrighted motion picture and music files using unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal and is prosecuted by copyright owners.

There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them.

Grokster hopes to have a safe and legal service available soon.

Grokster was targeted by the RIAA and the MPAA as one that promoted sharing of films and music that were illegally available on their network. Wikipedia has a good overview of both the service and the legal case. You can also obtain the June 27, 2005, ruling (PDF) handed down by the Supreme Court on the Supreme Court's Web site. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's MGM v. Grokster page contains a list of writings and all the briefs filed during the prosecution of the case.

The Grokster Web site mentions plans for developing a legal file-sharing service in the future and refers people to http://www.grokster3g.com/.