Lawsuit Brought By MySpace Founder to Halt MySpace's Increasingly Aggressive Censorship Activities

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Brad Greenspan filed a lawsuit today in Federal District Court in Los Angeles thru his LiveUniverse company, accusing News Corp's MySpace of ramping up the practice of censoring MySpace users from using or even mentioning the name on their profile pages of products or websites that News Corp deems to be competitive or a source of information adverse to News Corp. The lawsuit makes use of the law in the United States to protect companies and consumers from the attempts by MySpace to illegally create a monopoly and extend its dominance of the internet social networking market.

MySpace, since being taken over by News Corp, has used this mass censorship technique in the past against some of the larger services such as YouTube and Revver before user revolts forced MySpace to temporarily reverse censoring these services. More recently, MySpace has begun targeting and censoring smaller competitors such as social networking startup Stickam.com and vidiLife.com, the social networking and video site launched by Brad Greenspan over a year ago. It is clear that News Corp and MySpace are determined to destroy competing video, photo, and social networking products as they seek to launch and dominate with their own products, while destroying MySpace users' freedom of choice.

MySpace blocks usage of the products it deems competitive and goes a step further by effectively slapping gags on the mouths of the over 100 million MySpace users by replacing any attempts by users to type the url of sites like 'stickam.com' or 'vidilife.com' into a blog or profile with ' ... ... ' .

"The shocking mass censorship of the over 100 million MySpace users that News Corp and MySpace are beginning to aggressively engage in today is simply evil behavior," said Brad Greenspan, whose company created MySpace in 2003. "When we started MySpace in 2003, we empowered users by giving them full control over their profile pages. MySpace has flourished by partnering with users and protecting their rights to express themselves and have freedom of choice on their profile page. News Corp's moves to destroy and limit the freedom MySpace users have enjoyed is analogous to the strategies a dictator would employ after seizing control of a previously free nation."

Greenspan continued, "If News Corp is able to continue its censorship and mass gagging techniques today, then tomorrow it should surprise no one when News Corp deletes mentions of competitive news organizations to their own Fox News by preventing users from typing CNN.com or ABCNEWS.com in their MySpace blogs. Or when MySpace wants to promote the music artists on its own label, it will simply block users from talking about or promoting similar artists."

"I noticed that one of the websites I am an investor in, vidiLife.com, was targeted by News Corp's censorship strategy in mid October immediately after a video interview appeared on vidiLife from a MySpace user and shareholder named Mike McGuire that detailed his views on News Corp's takeover of MySpace and how he was personally harmed," explained Greenspan. "vidiLife in September alone, according to comScore, was visited and used by over 800,000 MySpace users. News Corp in its quest to stop the spread of information that paints News Corp in an adverse light, has directly harmed at least 800,000 MySpace users by cutting off and blocking their use of vidiLife as a video hosting service provider. vidiLife's traffic has plunged since News Corp began censoring MySpace users' ability to use or talk about vidiLife. vidiLife and the MySpace users that used the vidiLife service are just the first wave of casualties in a larger censorship campaign that News Corp intends to increase if they are not stopped."

The goal of the lawsuit is to force News Corp and MySpace to agree to permanently end their current and growing practice of mass censorship on the MySpace service which harms consumers freedom of expression and choice while stifling technological innovation that benefits all consumers.

The lawsuit filed today is but one mechanism being employed to hopefully force News Corp to permanently end what is the start of incredibly disturbing behavior. However, MySpace users and the public at large need to send a message to News Corp that censorship is wrong!

MySpace users can mobilize today and send a message to News Corp and the guys directly responsible for carrying out this evil censorship and demanding they stop harming MySpace user's rights!

Ross Levinsohn is head of Fox Interactive that controls MySpace. Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson manage MySpace day to day and are increasing harmful censorship everyday! Reach out and tell them how you feel! Stand up and protect your rights!

http://www.myspace.com/chrisdewolfe http://www.myspace.com/tomanderson http://www.myspace.com/rosslevinsohn Launch of CensorSpace.com

To that end, Brad Greenspan also announced today that he has launched a watch dog web site, CensorSpace.com, to monitor and expose organizations such as News Corp that censor user content and compromise open and independent communities.

Users may visit CensorSpace to learn more about today's actions and how they can mobilize to support efforts to stop News Corp and MySpace's censorship activities.

Greenspan also pledged that 100% of the financial awards (less any taxes owed) that arise from this MySpace litigation are to be donated to organizations that fight censorship.

"I encourage users to visit CensorSpace.com and view the videos that provide further information and context including the video by Penny, a typical MySpace user, that explains how News Corp's blockage and censorship of vidiLife has effected and harmed her. She is one of millions of users that used the vidiLife service to store her videos and now cannot make use of them because of News Corp's censorship initiatives," explained Brad Greenspan.

Additional Information on Legal Filing and Background

The legal filing asserts that News Corp's MySpace, by preventing competing social networking sites and video hosting services from having an adequate opportunity effectively to compete for business in the Internet-based social networking website market, "has engaged in intentional acts directed to the maintenance and extension of its monopoly" and "is attempting to monopolize the market for Internet-based social networking, and there is a dangerous probability that MySpace will achieve monopoly power." The lawsuit also states that MySpace has "engaged in 'unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business practices.'"

When Murdoch's News Corp acquired MySpace in September 2005 there were concerns from MySpace members and others that News Corp's business interests would undermine MySpace's commitment to being an open and independent community dedicated to putting the interests of its members first.

Since News Corp's acquisition of MySpace, there have been various reports of the censoring of content, including the following examples:

  *  Earlier this month, it was reported by Mashable.com that MySpace is
     blocking Stickam.com webcam codes.
  *  In January 2006, MySpace disabled links to Revver, a rival site.
     MySpace eventually reinstated Revver links following public complaints.
  *  In 2005 and 2006, MySpace also reportedly turned off a MySpace blog
     forum where MySpace users were discussing the censorship issues.
  *  In December 2005, MySpace disabled links to content hosted by YouTube.
     MySpace, under pressure from its users, eventually re-enabled the
     YouTube links.

On the CensorSpace.com website, a video link featuring Mike McGuire, a former MySpace investor expressing concerns about the News Corp's acquisition of MySpace is posted in order to demonstrate how MySpace is censoring third party video links. Anyone with a MySpace personal profile who attempts to link this video to their MySpace profile will be able to see how MySpace is censoring such third party video content links.

About vidiLife & Live Universe

vidiLife is a free online social networking site owned by LiveUniverse that provides a free video hosting service allowing users to view, upload and share videos. vidiLife is a competitor to MySpace's nascent video hosting service. One of the most popular features of vidiLife is that users can link its videos to other locations on the Internet, such as to a MySpace profile or to a sale listing on the popular Internet auctioneer eBay.com. For example, those links can be embedded in a MySpace profile merely by copying a code displayed beneath the user's desired vidiLife video content. Many thousands of vidiLife users have incorporated links to vidiLife content in their MySpace profiles.

LiveUniverse is a company established by Brad Greenspan to focus on video, entertainment, and social networking properties.

About Brad Greenspan

Brad Greenspan was a founder, CEO and Chairman of eUniverse (later renamed Intermix Media), where he led the creation and launch of MySpace in August 2003. Greenspan was the largest individual shareholder in September 2005 when Murdoch's News Corp. acquired Intermix and MySpace with approximately 10 percent ownership. At that time, Greenspan voted against the transaction and proposed an alternative deal, which was better financially for shareholders and MySpace users, as MySpace would have stayed independent. Current managers of MySpace Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson supported the News Corp transaction, choosing the promise of lucrative compensation packages over the benefit to MySpace users of staying independent.

  CONTACT:  LISA COHEN
            310 395-2544
            lisa.cohen32@verizon.net