Over a hundred Artists, writers and producers representing over a thousand copyrighted works have joined with Alki David to re-file the historic lawsuit against CBS Interactive.
Los Angeles Nov 14th 2011 – Singers Songwriters and Performing Artists have joined Internet media mogul Alki David and have re-filed a massive copyright infringement lawsuit implicating millions and potentially billions of dollars in revenues obtained by CBS subsidiaries CNET and CBS Interactive by fostering and popularizing piracy of copyrighted works.
Baker Marquart LLP, the law firm representing Alki David and the Justice for Artists Coalition (www.justart.net), have stated in the complaint that “CBS Interactive has quietly made billions by inducing the public to break the law, by providing them the file-sharing software and step-by-step guides, on exactly how to do it. No one has held Defendant accountable for this. Until now.”
The complaint argues that CBS Interactive and CNET maintained an ongoing enterprise of distributing peer to peer file-sharing software and DRM removal software (which its own editors have admitted is illegal), with many detailed reviews and tips on how to use the applications and to induce infringement of known protected intellectual properties that include performances of Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Madonna and Britney Spears.
“PM Dawn, Slick Rick, Ron Brows, Sugar Hill Music, Luther Campbell aka Luke Skywalker, Pretty Ricky, Dough E Fresh, H-Town and many others have joined the rapidly growing Coalition, “We have only scratched the surface. Many more rights-holders are coming forward representing tens of thousands of more intellectual properties but the verification process for identifying ownership is long and detailed, so we will keep on adding as we go.” added Alki David
“CBS Interactive is the Pirate Bay of Corporate America, have literally distributed Pirate Bay search and download tools and many others” continued Mr. David. “Ironically, I am demonstrating for the same reasons as the folks of Occupy Wall Street, with whom I have a great deal of sympathy. As this lawsuit is expanded it will also highlight lobbyism and monopolistic behavior at its very worst.”
“CBS sued my company FilmOn for not being a Cable Company when that’s exactly what it is. We deliver pay television to subscribers whereas CBS have in fact systematically gained market share over their competitors with their insidious infringment tactics. FIlmOn is a small company and it pays millions of dollars a year in license fees to channels, for the right to distribute them. I am livid at the hypocrisy of CBS and what it is doing to try and kill our dreams.”
The complaint further mentions that Alki David’s FilmOn is currently investigating additional actions against CBS for anti-competitive and unfair business practices.
The complaint states that CBS Interactive and CNET have “knowingly and willfully participated in and profited from the same massive infringement that engendered large copyright suits against Napster and LimeWire and that ultimately crippled them financially. And they have done so with impunity. In fact, because they owned a number of the most heavily-visited sites in the world for downloading software of all types, Defendants did more to further this massive infringement than Napster or LimeWire ever could by falsely legitimizing it and popularizing it to the masses.”
This David versus Goliath lawsuit further underscores the hypocrisy of CBS by highlighting Shelby W. Bonnie who held seats simultaneously on the boards of both CNET and Warner Music for two years. During this time, Warner CEO Bronfman was suing Limewire for copyright infringement and very publicly complaining about the huge monetary damage it had inflicted upon his company while at the same time having a sitting board member who was also serving as a director of the biggest distributor of Limewire software (distributing more than 220 million copies of it).
