DigitalConsumer.org opposes RIAA attack on Gateway Computer

Palo Alto, Calif. -- April 16, 2002 -- DigitalConsumer.org, a consumer-advocacy group dedicated to protecting consumer digital media rights, today condemned the RIAA for attacking Gateway Computer, a leading American technology company, for its advocacy of fair and legal use of digital media in a recent advertising campaign. Gateway's campaign supports consumers in their flexible use of media they legally purchase. Digital Consumer believes that the RIAA's statements (www.riaa.org) show that they do not believe that consumers have fair use rights (such as making a mixed CD of favorite music on your computer). Digital Consumer believes that consumers have personal use rights to legally purchased media and that those rights need to be safeguarded and asserted through a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights to prevent erosion from groups like RIAA.

"RIAA's attack isn't about preventing piracy, it's about making more money," said Joe Kraus, co-founder, Digitalconsumer.org. "Through a combination of technology and re-writing laws, Hollywood is trying to take away the rights that consumers have today in order to sell them back to them tomorrow."

ABOUT DIGITALCONSUMER.ORG

Digitalconsumer.org is a consumer-advocacy group started in 2001 with a mission is restore the balance of copyright law so that artists and creators can prosper while citizens have reasonable flexibility to use content in fair and legal ways. The group is composed of entrepreneurs, investors and consumers, and it is proposing a set of principles - a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights - that it intends to have passed into law. These principles would preserve consumers' historic fair-use rights that have been recently diminished by changes in copyright law made at the request of media companies. To learn more about the Consumer Technology Bill of Rights, please visit: www.digitalconsumer.org.

Press contact:
Melissa Walia
press@digitalconsumer.org
Cell: (650) 208-4523

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