(CelebrityAccess News Service) – Top executives of several of the world's most popular file-sharing software developer companies came together September 29 under the banner of P2P United www.p2punited.org
– the peer-to-peer technology industry's new Washington trade association — to announce a detailed P2P industry Code of Conduct. They also called on Congress to repeal copyright owners' extraordinary authority to bring discriminatory and counterproductive lawsuits against individual file downloaders under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, while bringing all stakeholders to a Congressional negotiating table.
According to P2P United's Executive Director, Adam Eisgrau, "It's long past time for the 'Tyrannosaurical' recording industry to stop blaming – and suing – its customers to cover up the industry's own glaring failure to adapt yet again to a new technology – one that should already have been making millions for it and for the average artist whom it still hypocritically claims to speak for."
"Discriminatory lawsuits that run roughshod over the public's rights to due process have got to stop and everyone with a stake in the future of electronic commerce needs to sit down under Congress' watchful eye and get serious about building the 21st century's online marketplace," Eisgrau added. "If the industry can't or won't stop crashing blindly through the forest snapping up cowering mammals, then Congress should shut 'Jurassic Park' down."
Joining Eisgrau in P2P United's call on Congress to sponsor all-stakeholder negotiations and to discuss the industry's new Code of Conduct, were: Pablo Soto, CEO of Blubster; Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster; Greg Bildson, chief operating and technology officer of Lime Wire; and Michael Weiss, CEO of Morpheus.
"The Internet's future must not be held hostage by the prehistoric mentality of the RIAA. Innovation is the life blood of the American economy and we intend to protect it," said Bildson.
"The recording industry has launched a campaign of terror against tens of millions of Americans and has been guilty of egregious and callous abuse of the law. It's time that Congress step in to protect the electorate, which we will actively be organizing to make its views known directly through www.p2p2united.org." said Rosso.
"The recording industry is leaving vast sums of money on the table by refusing to conduct commerce with us and our millions of consumers. It is way past time for the predatory litigation to end and the licensing to begin," urged Soto.
Weiss looked back to the future for a solution: "Congress has, time and time again, helped create viable marketplaces for new kinds of intellectual property – like VHS tapes and webcasts – by making it possible for anyone who wants to distribute copyrighted music or other material to do so without individually negotiating a license. They simply pay into a royalty fund at a negotiated rate, so that artists can be fairly paid. It's high time to put this idea of a 'compulsory license' on the bargaining table, but the recording industry won't be at that table unless Congress makes their attendance 'compulsory' first."
P2P United also took the opportunity to unveil its web site, www.p2punited.org, and issued a call to action to all Americans to stop the gross invasion of privacy and scorched earth litigation policies of the recording industry.
The charter members of P2P United are: Free Peers, Inc.; Grokster, LTD.; Lime Wire, LLC; MetaMachine, Inc.; Piolet Networks, S.L.; and StreamCast Networks, Inc. The association has been recognized as a Section 501(c)(6) organization by the Internal Revenue Service, and is represented in Washington by Flanagan Consulting, LLC.
