RIAA ties P2P with child pornography in latest strategy

In a desperate attempt to garner public support for the demise of P2P programs such as Kazaa, the RIAA has sunk so low that they will have to look up from a gutter to see a snakes belly. The latest volley from an industry rife with foul language, sex and violence as a common source of revenue has been fired. The watchdog organization has begun a campaign intended to show that its nemesis, the peer-to-peer networks for swapping files like KaZaA and Morpheus are used not only to trade songs but also pornographic images, including child pornography.

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"As a guy in the record industry and as a parent, I am shocked that these services are being used to lure children to stuff that is really ugly," said Andrew Lack, the chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment.

Others ask whether raising this issue is more than a little cynical from an industry that heavily promotes music with sexual and violent themes.

"The entertainment companies have engaged in a deliberate and despicable campaign of lies to smear peer-to-peer technology for political purposes," said Philip S. Corwin, a lobbyist for Sharman Networks, the publisher of KaZaA, the largest file-sharing service. "They are trying to associate us unfairly with the most vile element in society, child pornography."

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Pornography has been actively traded through file-sharing services from their start. But the record labels have recently started lending lobbying and logistical support to antipornography and child protection groups that are raising the issue. For example, Dan Klores Communications, which represents Sony Music and other music clients, has been promoting Parents for Megan's Law, a Long Island group involved with preventing child abuse that has been critical of child pornography available through file-sharing services, like KaZaA.

Their efforts are having some result. A bill has been introduced into the House, with the endorsement of the recording industry, that would require children to get parental consent before using sharing software. And on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to look into the connection between file-swapping services and pornography, called by its chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican of Utah.

Not a day goes by, where even though I use various methods to filter incoming email, I will not receive umpteen sexually explicit ads. Apparently, although I am a male it is common knowledge that my breasts are in need of enlargement among other things. I often wonder what parents do when they have kids in the house and want to get grandmas email, instead get to read a Viagra ad. But, we can't seem to stop the spam. Don't get me wrong it all needs to be stamped out, but the porno email has been a problem for years. To see a thinly veiled bill going through the House so quickly. A bill fueled by greed, the sole purpose to increase the RIAA members bottom line profit, not the elimination child porn, is very sad indeed.

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Source: nytimes.com

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