The Software Publishers Association --which has been criticized by software companies for not being PR savvy when it filed lawsuits against Internet Service Providers (PR News, Oct. 28) -- dismissed its lawsuit against the ISP Community Connexion Inc., based in Oakland, Calif., Oct. 23, according to Peter Beruk, director of domestic anti-piracy for the SPA.
"We did this to get useful dialogue going," added Beruk, who said the SPA decided to withdraw its claims and try to work toward getting C2Net to establish a policy agreement to prevent illegal activities on its server. The SPA is close to striking agreements in *four other lawsuits it filed concerning copyright infringement --two against ISPs and two against end users. Those cases are expected to be settled within the next few weeks, said Beruk. (SPA, Peter Beruk, 202/452-1600)