RIAA Drops Lawsuit Against ISP's

[MagicMorpheus]

RIAA Drops Lawsuit Against ISP's

The RIAA, in its infinite wisdom and mercy, has discontinued it's lawsuit. It all started when Listen4ever, a Chinese based website, allowed a wide array of mp3's to be downloaded for free. Immediately, the RIAA sued major US backbones to prevent access to this website. Now, after the site was flooded with requests and even blocked from reaching US citizens, the RIAA no longer views this site a threat. Here's their press release regarding the issue, they even manage to add some humor to the title...

Listen4Ever To Pirated Music On Chinese Web Site? Not Anymore

With the illegal file sharing service Listen4ever now offline, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced that it is withdrawing its lawsuit that had sought the assistance of four Internet Service Providers in cutting off access to the site.

In an apparent response to the extensive anti-piracy efforts of the international music industry, listen4ever has been offline since Sunday. The RIAA had taken the step of seeking the help of Internet Service Providers because this particular file sharing network -- an especially flagrant and sophisticated violator of copyright laws, offering up a cache of copyrighted U.S. music with a centralized server, ala Napster -- had attempted to shield itself from U.S. laws by using offshore servers located in China. Though hosted in China, isten4ever.com clearly targeted U.S. users with a polished, all-English website with music from U.S. top-selling artists, available for free.

“This has been an effective partnership between IFPI and RIAA that shows there is a seamless worldwide web of anti-piracy enforcement,” said Hilary Rosen, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA. “This particular network was a crass attempt to evade our copyright laws by setting up shop in China while offering a treasure trove of mostly American music for free. The fact that this file sharing service went to such lengths to conceal its origins demonstrates again the awareness that this is an illegal activity -- for both the operators and users of these unauthorized networks,” said Rosen.

The voluntary withdrawal of today’s lawsuit does not preclude further litigation if isten4ever should reconstitute itself under some new name or move to another server.

Obtained from http://www.slyck.com/