California State University Chancellor’s Executive Order on Protection of Copyrighted Material Applauded by SafeMedia

LOS ANGELES, CA - SafeMedia Corporation says it salutes the Chancellor of the California State University system who has issued Order #999 on illegal downloading of copyrighted materials. “SafeMedia’s ’Clouseau®’ would work well on the California State University campus networks, because the hardware protects privacy, while preventing illegal downloads. It stops anyone from using the university networks for sending or receiving illegal peer-to-peer file sharing,” said President Safwat Fahmy, the founder and CEO of SafeMedia Corporation. “Clouseau® totally protects user privacy and fully respects academic freedom while it examines all incoming and outgoing packets on the network, destroys all illegal P2P, while all legal packets including P2P Bit Torrent files pass through to its destination without delay.”

In his letter addressed to all California State University presidents, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said, “It is the policy of the CSU to use any and all information technologies in a manner consistent with the federal laws governing copyright protection. These include, but are not limited to, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the Teach Act of 2002 and all subsequent amendments.”

“This executive order for the California State University system will likely be a model for higher learning institutions. We feel that with Clouseau both university administrators and government policy makers finally have the solution everyone has long been searching for. It insures compliance with the law while protecting the rights of the user at the same time. Advanced technology and a unique approach to fingerprinting and DNA markers created by SafeMedia make this possible. If campuses had Clouseau on their networks today there would be 24/7/365 compliance with every federal and state law governing copyright protection,” said Fahmy.

Chancellor Reed added, “Technological advances and the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing applications have created an environment where illegal downloading of copyrighted materials, particularly, but not exclusively, music and entertainment videos has flourished. These violations have caused the recording and motion picture industries -- two industries vital to the economic health of California -- to suffer billions of dollars in lost revenue.”

“Clouseau is being successfully used in Florida, California and Oklahoma, and we welcome any calls or inquiries from the Chancellor’s office or any other university, and the recording and motion picture industries. All Internet users -- businesses, universities, organizations and individuals -- will be able to comply in a user-friendly way, avoid expensive and hostile legal action, and have their privacy fully protected. And as for digital copyright holders, Clouseau at last makes the Internet available as a safe, viable mass distribution channel because it eliminates all illegal P2P file transfers,” explained Fahmy.

Meanwhile, a Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) commissioned study revealed that “the sound recording industry lost billions to piracy in 2005: sales of pirated music CDs were worth an estimated $4.5 billion and there were about 20 billion illegal downloads,” said Study Author Greg Freeman, vice president, Public Policy and Consulting, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC).