Shocker: US laws don't work in China

August 17, 2002

Record Labels Want 4 Internet Providers to Block Music Site

Testing out a tactic to combat online piracy, a group of record companies asked a judge yesterday to order four major Internet service providers to block Americans from viewing a China-based Web site that offers thousands of copyrighted songs free of charge.The 13 record labels that filed the suit in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan say the site, Listen4ever .com, is "even more egregious" than the music-sharing service Napster, which was shut by a court order.

Because they can't use US law to shut down a file sharing site in China, the record labels just want to make that one site inaccessible from the US. Hasn't this practice been used by China, despite strong US criticism? When this Listen4ever.com changes to a new domain name and IP space, will the record labels ask for that to be blocked? How long before they want to block the entire .cn netspace? The internet is global. Get used to it.