IP: EFF: Recording Industry Attacks Internet to Stop Chinese Pirates, Lawsuit Would Extend Great Internet Firewall of China to US

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, August 19, 2002


Contact:

Fred von Lohmann
   Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   fred () eff org
   +1 415 436-9333 x123 (office), +1 415 215-6087 (cell)


Recording Industry Attacks Internet to Stop Chinese Pirates

Lawsuit Would Extend Great Internet Firewall of China to US

New York, NY - The Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) asked a court Friday to order four Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) who maintain the Internet "backbone" to
prevent access to a Chinese website that provides
unauthorized copies of copyrighted music.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) opposes the RIAA
action because it seeks to establish a precedent that
anyone alleging piracy could shut down access to parts of
the Internet, resulting in inappropriate shutdowns, undue
administrative burden for ISPs, and imperiling the basic
principle of unfettered exchange of information on the
Internet.

"This latest lawsuit, along with the recently proposed
Berman bill, demonstrates that the major record labels have
declared war on the infrastructure of the Internet in their
campaign to stop the digital music revolution," said EFF
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann.
"The Business Software Alliance and software industries,
who have for years battled overseas pirates, have never
resorted to lawsuits against Internet backbone providers
that is both pointless and dangerous to innocent
bystanders."

"We shouldn't be copying the Great Firewall of China
here in the United States," noted von Lohmann.
"Offering U.S. consumers a compelling, fairly-priced
alternative to the black market will stop illicit traffic to
Chinese websites far more effectively than dragging ISPs
into 'whack-a-mole' Internet blocking efforts."

EFF expresses its concern that attempts to shut down parts
of the Internet will spread to "proxy services," like
Anonymizer.com, which are crucial to privacy and free
expression online.

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/Infra/20020819_eff_riaa_pr.html

RIAA court filings against Internet backbone ISPs:
http://www.eff.org/Infra/riaa_v_backbone.html


About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to
websites in the world at
http://www.eff.org/

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/