IP: RIAA comment on Felten lawsuit and the EFF comment on the RIAA comment

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Statement by RIAA's Cary Sherman on Felten Lawsuit
Professor Felten's decision to sue the RIAA and the SDMI Foundation is 
inexplicable. We have unequivocally and repeatedly stated that we have no 
intention of bringing the professor, or the Electronic Frontier Foundation, 
would have preferred that we sue in order to keep their publicity machine 
running. Since we've said we have no issue with the publication of the 
Felten paper, they now resort to suing us to keep this issue alive.


and

EFF Reply to RIAA Statement Regarding Felten Case
June 6, 2001

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the plaintiffs have filed 
Felten v. RIAA because the RIAA threatened the scientific process. RIAA 
currently claims that they "have no intention of bringing a lawsuit against 
Professor Felten or his colleagues". However, RIAA attorneys spent nearly a 
month on the phone threatening litigation against everyone associated with 
publishing the research paper and demanding changes to the research paper. 
RIAA attorneys only started issuing press statements to the contrary after 
they succeeded in squelching the research paper (see the complaint. Verance 
has never indicated a willingness to allow publication of the research paper.

EFF and the plaintiffs seek not only publication of this research paper 
without fear of prosecution, but a clear legal determination that no one 
needs the permission of the record companies before publishing and 
presenting scientific work.



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