By:Bryan M. (Moneoa)
Activists at Downhill Battle, a file sharing advocacy group, have planned a nice gift for the industries this christmas. In True grinch like fashion the group has planned to send a brick of unsightly coal for every 100 Dollars donated to digital rights defense groups including: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and IPac.
“It’s a cute Christmas symbol for someone who’s been bad all year,” said Nicholas Reville, co-director of Downhill Battle. “I think it’s appropriate for all types of things that the RIAA and the MPAA are doing.”
Reps for either trade group were unavailable for comment on downhills unique form of protest.
This is downhills reaction to the barrage of lawsuits that the industry groups have filed against alledged file swappers. Since the inception of thier poorly thought out legal plan, the RIAA has sued over 7,700 people in an attempt to stem what the industries call the “bleeding dry” of millions in royalties lost in recent years due to many factors but painted by the trade groups as a direct result of the rise in the popularity of filesharing.
The MPAA followed a little over a year later by filing thier own rash of lawsuits aimed at stomping out the popular Bittorrent protocol and websites that promote unauthorized copying of thier films.
A case between the trade groups and file trading software companies goes to the supreme court soon to determine weather a company is liable for the actions of users on thier networks. Many say its a rehashing of the Betamax lawsuits in the early 80′s and that a decision placing liability on software makers will have negative repercussions contrary to the beta max decision.
So kids get out there and donate, lets fill the industries stockings with coal this year!
For more info visit http://downhillbattle.org/node/view/391
