[Infowarrior] - HRRC: Recording Industry lied to Congress, Courts, and Consumers

[Richard Forno]

FOR RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Joseph
tel: (703) 907-7664
e-mail: info at hrrc.org

or
Megan Pollock
tel: (703) 907-7668
e-mail: mpollock at ce.org

RECORD LABELS BREAK COMPACTS WITH
CONSUMERS, CONGRESS AND COURTS
Suit Against XM Trashes Labels' AHRA and Grokster Assurances

Washington, May 17, 2006 - The industry that advised consumers, the Congress
and the courts that it would not abuse the legal tools it sought from them
has done just that, charged the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC)
today. In a suit aimed directly at consumer practices it has long led the
public to believe it had no intention to challenge, the recording industry
has now, via lawsuit, labeled its best customers as pirates and sought
unprecedented tools to use against them. Today HRRC Chairman Gary Shapiro
said:

    ""I have a long enough memory to be astonished at the suit filed
yesterday. We worked in good faith with the music industry to help pass the
Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), based on personal assurances that I
received that it would put an end to this sort of harassing lawsuit against
private, noncommercial consumer conduct. Yesterday the major labels filed
such a suit, against the use of devices clearly covered by the AHRA, without
so much as a mention of the law that provides for royalties on these
devices, and which was clearly written to remove even the threat of this
sort of bogus lawsuit."

Shapiro also accused the labels, and the entertainment industry as a whole,
of abusing the assurances given to the courts, the Congress and the public
at large when the industry pursued its Grokster lawsuit. Then, entertainment
industry representatives insisted that they did not by any means intend to
threaten the sort of in-home, private, noncommercial recording that
yesterday, they alleged violates the copyright law. Shapiro observed:

    "The lawyer that signed the complaint against XM is the same lawyer who
told the Supreme Court that ripping a CD to a PC and then to a handheld
device (without paying any royalty) is lawful. He represents the same
industry that, in seeking 'inducement' legislation, promised that it would
never be applied against devices such as a TiVo personal video recorder. But
yesterday the complaint against XM claimed that consumers who use their
devices in such ways are violating the copyright laws, and that XM is
therefore guilty of inducement.

    "The HRRC is proud of our history of working with the entertainment
industry when the industry's goals and promises have appeared reasonable,"
continued Shapiro. "The action taken yesterday indicates that
representations to the Congress, the courts and the public are not enough to
assure that the music industry will keep its promises, to us or to the
public and its elected and judicial representatives."

For updates on Congressional, regulatory and judicial proceedings, please
visit the HRRC website at www.HRRC.org.

About HRRC
The Home Recording Rights Coalition, founded in 1981, is a leading advocacy
group for consumers' rights to use home electronics products for private,
non-commercial purposes. The members of HRRC include consumers, retailers,
manufacturers and professional servicers of consumer electronics products.
Further information on this and related issues can be found on the HRRC
website, www.hrrc.org.