By David McGuire washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, September 29, 2003; 4:26 PM
A group of software companies at the center of the controversy over online music and movie piracy today extended an olive branch to Congress, unveiling a code of conduct that condemns the illegal trading of copyrighted works and promises to give parents tools to limit children's use of song-swapping networks like Grokster and Morpheus.
P2P United, which represents Grokster, Morpheus and several other popular peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, published the code as part of an ongoing effort to legitimize file sharing, saying it has been been unfairly demonized by the recording industry.
"This is not anything even remotely nefarious, but rather an established business that is seeking to become more established," P2P United Executive Director Adam Eisgrau said at a press conference today.
The founding members of P2P United -- Grokster, Morpheus, BearShare, Lime Wire, eDonkey and Blubster -- said their next software updates, due out in a few weeks, will comply with the code.
Under the code, file-sharing companies will warn their customers against illegally downloading and trading copyrighted music. They also will make it easy for users to uninstall their software and offer parents ways to prevent their kids from sharing files.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the largest music recording and distribution companies, was unimpressed with the code of conduct.
"It is refreshing to see that P2P United is acknowledging that their members should be more active in educating their users about the consequences of illegal file sharing that is rampant on their networks
as well as the other risks these networks pose to personal privacy and security," said RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss. "But, let's face it, they need to do a whole lot more before they can claim to be legitimate businesses."
File-sharing network executives readily admit that it is difficult to control how people use their software because their networks are inherently decentralized. Music and movie industry officials have long argued that this was done specifically to avoid being held liable for copyright infringement.
Unlike Napster, the company that made free online music trading a runaway phenomenon, today's file-sharing networks do not require music to be downloaded through central servers owned by the networks. Instead, users download the software and share files among themselves.
There are an estimated 57 million song swappers in the United States, according to the Boston-based Yankee Group research firm. P2P United today put that figure at about 63 million.
