Hollywood's Golden Shield.

[Matthew X]

What goes around...
Media giants demand ISPs block Web sites
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 17/08/2002 at 08:04 GMT
They've sued Napster and Scour into submission; realizing that this is 
expensive, they've bought numerous Congressional lapdogs to force the DoJ 
to become their personal 'Copyright 911' so that challenges to their 
production and distribution monopoly can be hounded down and eliminated at 
the taxpayer's expense rather than their own; they've lobbied Congress to 
impose DRM controls on virtually all media and virtually all devices, 
including your computer; and now, for a final assault on human dignity, the 
Recording Industry Ass. of America has sued for the right to determine 
which Web sites you and I will be permitted to visit.
Taking a page from the book of totalitarian regimes, the media industry is 
suing major ISPs, demanding that the foundations of a Chinese-style Great 
Firewall be laid to protect their precious copyrights, Reuters reports.
At issue is the Listen4ever site, which the RIAA whinges is beyond their 
influence. According to the wire service, the industry hasn't been able to 
figure out who owns the offending site, and is stymied in its efforts to 
take action against it.
It is therefore necessary for the thieving, rotten little people of the 
United States to have their Internet access regulated.
Of course the Listen4ever site has already moved. Thus it will be necessary 
to chase it down and amend the complaint. And if one site is banned, then 
any number of sites can be. And that, more than anything, is the power the 
RIAA is salivating over. Call this a test case. If it succeeds, the door 
will be opened for continuing and capricious Internet censorship by an 
international communications cartel.
Defendants include such heavyweights as AT&T, Sprint and UUNET. Plaintiffs 
include Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann and Warner Bros, a possession of AOL 
Time Warner. AOL hasn't been named in the suit, perhaps because they've 
already volunteered to comply, being joined at the hip, as they are, to a 
media behemoth. ®
APster now,before its too late,you know it makes sense.Valenti's getting on 
anyway.