Web Site Blocking Of The Riaa And Mpaa

[Bison]

This site blocks the RIAA/MPAA

Now that the entertainment industry has declared ernest war on the Internet and its users, why not configure your computer to reject further requests from IP-blocks assigned to MPAA and RIAA members?

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http://techfocus.org/comments.php?catid=17&id=3662

Access Denied: RIAA, MPAA Blocked From Techfocus

July 20, 2003 - 3:06

Effective immediately, the RIAA and MPAA will need to find another way to get to Techfocus. In response to their legal targeting of individual file-swappers, access from their known networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31833.html

This decision was made based on three elements:

1. The RIAA chose to use our article with Fred Von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, quoting him out of context in a manner which could lead readers of their materials to believe that we supported their efforts. This could not be further from the truth.

2. The RIAA chose to violate our reprint policy, which states: "In terms of reprinting our reviews and features, you must obtain prior permission before reprinting them." While the RIAA can use the material legally under 'fair use,' they should have contacted us before distributing some of our content world-wide. We appreciated the mention in the Washington Post, but as we said above, we did not appreciate our work being taken out of context.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jun25.html

3. The RIAA is choosing to devote their resources to target individuals, rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method (see iTunes). We will not allow this website to be used as a resource with which they could utilize user statements or comments against them. While this has not happened, we are pre-emptively moving to avoid this.

Additionally, our site is clean. There are no copyrighted items on Techfocus which infringe upon any RIAA or MPAA member.

In a perfect world this wouldn't be an act we'd want to take - but we've had it with the RIAA and MPAA. Their contribution to the internet is stifling programming creativity (see the DMCA, etc), and they are acting in bad faith. As such, they can find their opposition information elsewhere.

While we are sure that these actions are not going to stop the RIAA and MPAA from acting against individuals, we hope that other sites take a similar approach. If you are a website owner or content creator, drop us a note and we'll provide you with the file - it would be a powerful statement if webmasters around the net just shut them out.

Update: The updated file can be located here. Our appreciation to EyeMWing for providing us with a lot more ranges! Also, C7 has created 2 graphics for use on your website, one of which you can now see on the left-hand side of our site. The file has been updated to include those graphics - one animated, one not. Thanks for all the positive input everyone! The graphics can also be seen just below.

http://techfocus.org/files/htaccess.zip

Best,

Techfocus Staff