IMMEDIATE RELEASE
How To Protect Yourself From The Potential Of A $220,000 Judgment: SafeMedia’s
P2PD Technology Solutions Are The Answer
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RIAA wins
jury award for $220,000 for making available just 24 copyrighted songs
Boca Raton, Fla. & Hollywood, CA – “The recent Minnesota
copyright infringement precedent-setting case gives the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) the right ammunition to stop people from downloading
and distributing unauthorized copyrighted digital files over contaminated Peer-to-Peer
(P2P) networks,” said CEO & Chairman Safwat Fahmy SafeMedia Corp., Boca
Raton, FL. “SafeMedia products are the
only technology that was designed and created to block all contaminated
encrypted and non-encrypted P2P networks and to protect internet users from
such costly judgment. SafeMedia products installed on a university/schools, government
and ISP networks or at internet users home would make it virtually impossible
for anyone to commit illegal file sharing.”
RIAA won its first trial last week when a jury ordered Jammie
Thomas of Duluth, Minnesota to pay $220,000 to a half dozen separate record
companies -- Sony BMG, Arista Records, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings,
Capitol Records, and Warner Bros. Records. The settlement involves 24
copyrighted songs illegally downloaded and shared
with others over a Kazaa file-sharing network on her computer. Thomas'
lawyer argued that someone else could have downloaded the songs either
in-person or remotely, but the
In a previous case in Arizona Judge Neil V. Wake provided the
legal foundation for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
recent victory. The case Atlantic v. Howell, where Judge
Wake, in a summary judgment, shot down the Howell's arguments and handed the
RIAA $40,500 in statutory damages, $350 in court costs, and a permanent
injunction against future copyright infringement by the Howells.
“This landmark decision was based on ‘The Made Available Theory’
that anyone who has P2P programs on
their computer, which connect to a contaminated P2P network (even without
downloading files) is committing copyright infringement since the only reason
to have the programs is to make copyrighted files available to all other users,”
said Fahmy. (Contaminated P2P networks are known to contain illegal copyrighted
files, classified business information, national security data and personal
identification documents).
According to Tom Sydnor, senior fellow and director of the
Center for the Study of Digital Property at The
Progress & Freedom Foundation, the Jammie Thomas case is a double-edge
sword for Internet pirates. "First, by rejecting the defendant’s
“a-neighbor-could-have-done-it defense,” the jury indicated that the holder of
an internet-access account is responsible for illegal uses of their account.
This helps dispel the myth that you can download with impunity and then blame
on your roommate when get caught.
"Second, by awarding damages of $9250 per song—well above
the $750-per-song minimum—the jury spoke to both the illegality and immorality
of unauthorized downloading. Some say that this verdict will not deter
file-sharing because the number of people using file-sharing programs has
increased since the lawsuits began. They miss the point. The defendant here was
sued because she was allegedly uploading over 1700 songs. Studies show that the
percentage of users uploading files on these networks has plunged since the
lawsuits began. As users learn to stop uploading infringing files, the problem
of infringing downloaders will resolve itself,” explained Sydnor, who also authored
a study for the US Patent Office on dangers of file sharing, and recently
testified in
In another RIAA lawsuit, Elektra
v. Santangelo, AOL has been enjoined as a third party defendant and sued
for $4 million. The lawsuit against AOL is based on information and belief
that, AOL failed to use its controls to prevent illegal downloading (from
Contaminated P2P networks) of copyrighted music, even though it had the
information, superior knowledge, ability, skill, techniques, tools, power and
authority to prevent such downloading.
“The verdict should also send a message to distributors of
file-sharing programs,” said Sydnor. “Yet again, a consumer made an utterly
foreseeable use of a file-sharing program and suffered dire consequences.
Distributors that care about their users will get the hint and start using the
best-available technology to prevent infringing uses of their programs and
networks.”
SafeMedia’s P2P Disaggregator (P2PD) technology is embedded in DSL
and Cable modems in the home or work environment or as a standalone subnet
appliance for universities, government agencies and corporate networks. Our
strategy of subnet implementation eliminates any network latency; controls
darknets file sharing between subnets and reduces exposure to backbone failure.
“These cases are likely to send a strong message on piracy
throughout cyberspace,” said Fahmy. “We believe universities and campuses
across the country are trying to end piracy on campus. A university, based on
the AOL lawsuit may be found liable for allowing the infringing conduct of
staff and/or students where the university has provided access to the equipment
used to carry out the infringing conduct and not taken reasonable steps to
ensure that their network infrastructure is not used to infringe copyrighted
material.”
SafeMedia’s products were created specifically to give
universities, corporations, government agencies and ISP’s a complete long term
cost effective solution for protecting their users and winning the war on
Internet piracy associated with contaminated P2P networks. .
[Editors: For media
interviews contact: George McQuade, at MAYO Communications, 818-340-5300 or 818-618-9229 or PR@MayoCommunications.com. For more
information about SafeMedia Corp.’s new product line visit: www.SafeMedia.com.]
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