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For Immediate Release: September 8, 2000

Contact:
Rich Taylor or Phuong Yokitis
MPAA
202/293-1966

Emily Kutner
MPAA
818/995-6600 x382

TWENTY COPYRIGHT GROUPS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN NAPSTER CASE

(September 8, 2000).Today, the Motion Picture Association of America joined with 19 other organizations, representing a wide spectrum of the copyright community, in filing an Amicus Curiae Brief in the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, urging the Court to affirm the decision of the district court preliminarily enjoining Napster from facilitating further copyright infringement.

"The groups filing this brief today represent the backbone of America's creative community. With one voice, we band together to send a simple and clear message: It is wrong to build a business that relies on the theft of copyrighted materials, and we oppose Napster's business model for doing just that," said Jack Valenti, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"We call-on the court to recognize that America's creative communities must be able to protect their artistic works against theft. For if they cannot, who will invest enormous sums of money to make the next movie? Who will back the singers, songwriters, authors, photographers, developers, and artists?"

Signatories to the brief include:
Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.,
Software & Information Industry Association,
American Film Marketing Association,
Association of American Publishers,
American Society of Media Photographers,
Professional Photographers Association,
Graphic Artists Guild,
Interactive Digital Software Association,
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers,
Broadcast Music, Inc.,
Producers Guild of America,
Directors Guild of America,
Writers Guild of America, West, Inc.,
American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada,
Reed Elsevier, Inc.,
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists,
Office of the Commissioner of Baseball,
National Basketball Association,
Songwriters Guild of America, and
Amsong, Inc.

The brief is available on the MPAA web site at www.mpaa.org .