[Infowarrior] - Network Shuttered By MPAA Re-Opens

[Richard Forno]

Key takeaway for the MPAA and their bretheren is in the final  
paragraph.  Think they'll learn?  Survey says.....NO.  --rf


Wi-Fi Network Shuttered By MPAA Re-Opens
After week of bad press, Sony suddenly feels cooperative
05:21PM Friday Nov 13 2009 by Karl Bode

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/WiFi-Network-Shuttered-By-MPAA-ReOpens-105492

Earlier this week we reported how a free, tiny (1,000 feet total)  
municipal Wi-Fi network in Ohio was forced to shut down after an MPAA  
legal warning. A network user had apparently transferred a file  
copyrighted by Sony Pictures, and instead of risking a costly legal  
fight, the network decided to simply shut down. The news quickly  
spread across the Internet, something that apparently didn't make Sony  
all that comfortable. One local user sends us this local NBC affiliate  
report that says the network has been turned back on after a request  
by Sony:

Levine says the news of the shut down spread very quickly from D.C. to  
California in less than a week, and people from across the country  
bombarded Sony Pictures Entertainment with complaints about big  
companies picking on small towns. Finally, Levine explains that Jim  
Kennedy, SVP of Corporate Communications for Sony Pictures  
Entertainment, e-mailed the county and asked them to turn the wi-fi  
service back on because of the complaints.

Sony says they'll kindly "help the county identify ways to prevent  
similar offenses from happening in the future." Of course if the MPAA  
and Sony had approached the network owners like human beings in the  
first place -- instead of engaging in the kind of scorched earth  
tactics they've employed for several years now -- they probably  
wouldn't have gotten the bad press to begin with.