Studios Will Warn Corporations

Just as the government asks for an end to copyright wars to spur broadband deployment, copyright owners prepare to warn major U.S. corporations about potential legal liabilities.

by Roy Mark of www.internetnews.com [October 25, 2002]

On the same day a top Commerce Department official said the government and the private sector needed to "actively tip the scales" in the long running dispute between "free but illegal" content and legitimate content providers, Hollywood movie studios and major music publishers were preparing a letter to U.S. corporations warning them about the legal liabilities of employees using company networks to download copyrighted movies and music.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Music Publishers' Association, and the Songwriters Guild are prepared to warn U.S. companies that "allowing employees to use your corporate network to illegally distribute copyrighted music and movies is no different from software piracy."

According to the report, the letter will be sent Friday to more than 1,000 major corporations and urges the companies to "take whatever steps necessary to ensure that your network is not being misused to infringe copyrighted works." Earlier this year, the same groups sent similar letters to U.S. colleges and universities.

In the past, the major content providers have focused their legal efforts on shutting down operators of peer-to-peer networks such as Napster and Grokster. According to the news report, the movie and music publishers don't specifically threaten to take legal action against companies that allow employees to illegally download content but the letter "references legal issues."

— End