Media Rights is citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998 to disseminate and protect the arts in the digital age. It makes illegal and prohibits the manufacture of any product or technology that is designed for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure which effectively controls access to a copyrighted work or which protects the rights of copyright owners. Under the DMCA, mere avoidance of an effective copyright protection solution is a violation of the act.
MRT reps say their company and BlueBeat have developed a technological measure which controls access to copyrighted material. That product, the X1 SeCure Recording Control, has purportedly been tested by the industry's standards bodies, the RIAA and IFPI, and has been proven effective against stream ripping, while protecting privacy and limiting infringement liability for users, distributors and academic institutions. It has been designed for rapid deployment on a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) basis.
So MRT and BlueBeat.com have issued cease and desist letters to Apple, Microsoft, Adobe and Real Networks with respect to the production or sale of such products as the iPod, iTunes, Flash Player, Real Player and Vista OS. MRT asserts the companies have produced billions of these products without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners, actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies. Failure to comply with this demand could result in a federal court injunction to any of the above named parties to cease production or sale of their products and/or the imposition of statutory damages of at least US$200 to $2,500 for each product distributed or sold, claims MRT CEO Hank Risan.
"Together these four companies are responsible for 98 percent of the media players in the marketplace; CNN, NPR, Clear Channel, MySpace Yahoo and YouTube all use these infringing devices to distribute copyrighted works," he said in a press release. "We will hold the responsible parties accountable. The time of suing John Doe is over."
