Organization Claims Act Turned Out to Be "Surprisingly Effective" Way To Combat War on Digital Music Piracy

Washington, DC /DenounceNewswire/ -- 29 August 2003 -- The recording industry is providing its most detailed glimpse into some of the techniques it has employed as part of its campaign against online music swappers.

The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet.

According to the documents, the Recording Industry Association of America determined that the most effective way to stop this woman from pirating music was to shut down her power and the power of everyone in her neighborhood. Indeed, everyone in her state, neighborhing states, and even neighboring country, just for good measure. In so doing, the RIAA created the biggest power black out in North American history.

The documents further reveal that the RIAA, stung by civil-liberties backlashes after opening its massive detention facility in Mojave, CA last month, decided to try a different approach to its ongoing war on digital music piracy, by shutting down the Internet altogether. When it discovered it could not do that, it decided to shut down power to the personal computers of tens of millions of consumers, effectively denying them access to the Internet.

"We accept responsibility for this action," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "We're proud to say we found a very effective way to deter music piracy and we will not hesitate to use our power to shut down your power anywhere, anytime we choose."

New Name Reflects Both Current State of World and Company's Primary Source of Profits

New York, NY /DenounceNewswire/ -- 11 August 2003 -- AOL Time Warner, Inc., announced today it is planning to change its corporate identity to "War, Inc." The decision to remove "AOL," "Time," and "-ner" from the company's name will be made at a group board meeting next month.

"Considering the state of the world today and for the forseeable future, and considering where most of our profits come from due to media focus on war, we believe this new name will better reflect the company's position and values going forward," said Dick Parsons, group chief executive.

The move would also symbolize the effort underway by the company's America Online unit to defeat Microsoft Corporation's efforts at gaining market-share in the Internet and online services markets.

CNN, the company's successful cable news operation, has profited enormously in the past 18 months from the Iraq War. CNN is now viewed as a more strategic asset to the company than America Online, the shrinking internet company that is losing members faster than the trashcans of the nation can fill up with AOL CD-ROMs.

San Diego, CA /DenounceNewswire/ -- 6 August 2003 -- Lindows.com, Inc. (www.lindows.com) today announced the release of Lindows DVD Player, a software application that joins a long line of Linux-based DVD player programs such as Xine, VideoLAN client, Mplayer, and Ogle. What makes the Lindows DVD player unique is its name and the fact that it costs money while the other applications don't.

"In our continuing mission to give consumers choice, we're introducing this DVD player for Lindows," said Michael Robertson, Lindows CEO. "As I said, our goal is to give consumers choice, and that is what we have done."

The Lindows DVD player offers the ability to play DVDs on the computer screen. "It's really amazing," said Robertson. "You pop a DVD in your computer's DVD drive, and our software instantly recognizes it's a DVD and starts playing the movie. This is another brilliant technical innovation from the wizards here at Lindows, and I'm proud that they work for me." Other features of the Lindows DVD Player include stop, pause, eject, help, and quit.

The Lindows DVD player can be purchased on the Lindows.com website, using the Click-N-Run service. Alternatively, users may download and install Xine, Mplayer, Ogle, or other Linux applications for free, but then they don't get the enjoyment of knowing they are contributing to the expansion of Robertson's company.

Click-N-Run members, called Insiders, are entitled to purchase any software in the Lindows Click-N-Run Warehouse, currently offering access to more than 1,500 software applications. Non-members, known as Outsiders, are monitored closely and extremely encouraged to become members.

"One of the great benefits of being an Insider at Lindows is automatic enrollment in Michael's Moments, a service whereby you can email or call me and I will actually listen and respond to your questions or comments. Or, if I'm not available, one of my closest and most trusted staff members will reply on my behalf," says Robertson. "Outsiders lose out on the opportunity to communicate with me and find out what I think."

About Lindows.com, Inc.
Lindows.com positions itself as a consumer company bringing choice to computer users, regardless of whether or not computer users actually want choice or place choice at the top of their priority list. The company was founded by Michael Robertson, founder and former CEO of MP3.com, a company offering musical enthusiasts choice when what they wanted was quality. LindowsOS is the brand name for a Debian Linux operating system primarily written by open-source programmers who do not gain financially from any revenues generated by sales of Lindows products.