Important Press Release for all Notmydesk MusicShare Users:

RIAA, NMPA Reach Settlement With notmydesk.com

Recording Industry Association of America, National Music Publishers’ Association Reach Settlement with Notmydesk.com

New York, NY, June 17, 2002 – The recording industry, music publishers and songwriters announced today that they have reached an out-of-court settlement with Notmydesk.com, the Audiogalaxy-like clone, which requires Notmydesk to stop the infringement of copyrighted works on their peer-to-peer-to-peer network.  They were not fooled at all by Notmydesk slipping an extra peer in there.

The agreement follows a lawsuit filed in late May accusing Notmydesk of facilitating and encouraging widespread copyright infringement – as if they weren't gonna notice. Shyeah!  And simply calling it "sharing" was totally not fooling anyone, either.  The suit was brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of its member labels, and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), on behalf of the music publisher principals of its licensing affiliate, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., and on behalf of a few bitchy bands who don't want people listening to their music for free, even though it's been basically proven that listening to mp3's promotes the sales of compact discs.  But, whateva!

The settlement reached would allow Notmydesk to operate a "completely-block-everything" system, which requires that for any music available, the songwriter, music publisher, music publisher's wife, music publisher's son Tanner, and/or recording company must first consent to the use and sharing of the work.  This means, basically, that the only music left on Notmydesk to download and share are a few Sousa marches and a bootleg of Trent Reznor playing the Legend of Zelda theme during a jam session.

"We are pleased to settle this case quickly. This is a victory for everyone who cares about protecting the value of music," said Hilary Rosen, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA, barely managing to keep a straight face on the word "value." "This should serve as a wake-up call to *snrrk* the other networks that *ggmph* facilitate unauthorized copying. The *snkkt* responsibility for implementing systems that allow oh fuck it we win again suckers WAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!"

"The message is clear – there is no place on the Internet for services that exploit creators' work without fair compensation," added Edward P. Murphy, President and CEO, NMPA. "If anyone is going to rip of and exploit the work of musicians, it's going to be me and my pals here."  He then unhinged his jaw and swallowed a cat.

Notmydesk.com, based in Alameda, California, was one of the more heavily trafficked file-sharing websites for the three minutes it was up, online, and not being sued.