Artists for Justice Coalition Occupy CBS with Historic Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A large coalition of singers, songwriters and performing Artists have joined Internet media mogul Alki David and, through their counsel, Baker Marquart LLP, 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 through fostering and popularizing piracy of copyrighted works.

The complaint, brought on behalf of Alki David and the Justice for Artists Coalition (www.justart.net), alleges 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 further alleges that CBS Interactive and CNET maintained an ongoing enterprise of distributing peer to peer file-sharing software and DRM removal software, with many detailed reviews and tips on how to use the applications to copy known protected intellectual properties that include performances of Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Madonna and Britney Spears, as well as instructions on how to remove the electronic protections placed on digital music files that were meant to prevent their infringement.

"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 infringement 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 alleges 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).

SOURCE Alki David