Bianet talked to Bülent Forta, chairman of the Association of Interconnected Ownership Right Phonogram Producers (MÜYAP) about blocking access to MySpace and Last FM, two of the world's largest websites for socializing and music sharing. Forta explained: "The complaint was made by us. Intellectual property rights are stolen. We are fighting for our right".

"The ownership rights of the contents published in these websites belong to us. People are using them for free day by day. We applied for such a way in order to protect the rights of the people who gave their authorization to MÜYAP for this. Our aim was not to ban access to these sites. This is a problem of the Turkish law since there is no other kind of application".

"We did not request to ban the sites, this is a matter of the law"

The decision to block access to MySpace and Last FM on 19 September was a result of a court case filed by MÜYAP.

Forta explained the reasons as follows:

"We wanted to reach an agreement for these two sites to prevent the use of the contents without copyright. Because these companies did not approach us for copyright payments though they are among the world's biggest firms and earn billions by making use of many artists' works.

Chairman Forta stated that MÜYAP did not have the intention to block access to the websites and continued:

"MySpace and Last FM have to pay copyright fees to us in accordance with the Law of Intellectual Property Rights since they earn money with their music contents. However, the Turkish law regarding this issue does not offer an alternative to blocking access to these sites. Such a problem can be avoided by removing the copyrighted contents or by blocking just those contents. But neither the technology nor the law in Turkey are suitable for that."

"We are about to reach an agreement with MySpace, which nowadays is an inherent part of the world's music sector, to re-open the site in one or two days, yet MySpace insisted on not making copyright payments".

Forta consideres reactions as unconcious

"I do not agree with the criticism that censorship hinders free communication. Dear us if our freedom depends on this type of large businesses".

Forta evaluated his answer as below:

"This kind of response is not a conscious one. Yes, there was a justified antipathy against record companies in the 1980s. But today's situation is different. Now we have companies like MySpace and Last FM, which earn much more money than the record companies".

On the consumers' side users of MySpace and Last FM protested against blocking access to the websites. Together with members of the social site 'Friendsfeed' they will send loads of empty CDs in covers labeled "Do not touch free music" to MÜYAP. (BÇ/VK)