In another example of the detrimental effects of the influence of the RIAA and other traditional media groups on the Internet, AOL decided to pull its connections to UseNet.
Last summer, the ISP settled a long-running lawsuit brought by author Harlan Ellison. The science fiction writer had complained that AOL was partly to blame when one of its users posted digital copies of his published work in Usenet newsgroups. AOL argued that, under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), its liability for the actions of members was limited.
The RIAA and traditional media groups have lobbied hard to extend the concept of copyrights to new technologies in ways that have stagnated creativity and freedom of expression. These same approaches once threated the VCR, cassette tapes, and other new forms of media that have only expanded the markets for creative works, but in the case of the internet, traditional industries been more successful in cutting their noses off to spite their face through aggressive lobbying and heavy handed legal tactics. Unfortunately the effect is to stifle creativity and limit free access to information which will inevitably place the US at a disadvantage when competing with other countries.
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