Sony Music Entertainment Inc and 12 other record labels are asking a judge to order four Internet service providers to block access to a China-based Web site that offers free downloads of popular music.
The labels want a federal judge to bar units of AT&T Corp, Cable & Wireless Plc, Sprint Corp and WorldCom Inc. from providing access to the Listen4ever Web site. The plaintiffs -- including Vivendi Universal SA's UMG Recordings Inc and Bertelsmann AG's RCA Records -- say the site is "even more egregious" than the music-sharing site once run by Napster Inc.
The copyright suit marks the first time that the labels have sought to stop Internet providers from supplying access to such a Web site. They've previously sued the Web sites themselves, last year winning an order barring Napster from distributing copyrighted songs for free over the Internet.
"By disabling the connections that allow users' computers in the United States to communicate with Listen4ever's services in China, defendants can significantly diminish the continued illegal copying and distribution of plaintiffs' sound recordings," the record companies say in a complaint filed today in New York.
Listen4ever isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit. AT&T Broadband spokeswoman Sarah Eder said the company was reviewing the suit and declined to comment. A Sprint spokesman didn't have an immediate comment. Sudie Noland, a spokeswoman for WorldCom's UUNet Technologies, also declined to comment.
The labels say the Listen4ever site can be easily accessed by software that comes pre-packaged on most computers. At any given time, thousands of songs are available on the site, including works by Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Coldplay, and Christina Aguilera, they say.
Mary Blige's most recent album, "Dance for Me," was available on the site before it was released to stores on Aug. 13, the labels say.
The record companies say the only information they have about Listen4ever is that the domain name appears to have been registered in Tianjin, China, and that the company's computer servers are located there.
"Listen4ever's evasive behavior clearly indicates its desire to continue operating beyond the practical reach of US law," the labels say.
Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the recording industry, asked the Internet providers to block access to Listen4ver servers in China, the suit says.
The Internet service providers "in essence responded that they were reluctant to block communication to and from the Listen4ever site traveling over their networks simply at the request of RIAA, but would of course comply with a court order," the record companies say.
The labels claim a 1998 law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, anticipates such a situation and gives them the right to an injunction blocking access. Without it, they say, thousands of songs will flow freely over the Internet, denying the labels and their artists profits from their music.
Sony Music Entertainment is a unit of Tokyo-based Sony Corp.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats