AP reports The U.S. recording industry has dropped efforts to compel
four Internet service providers to block a Chinese Web site accused of
distributing pirated music.

Thirteen record companies had filed a lawsuit Friday after failing to
persuade the site, Listen4ever.com, to shut down on its own.

But in a surprise move, the companies dropped the lawsuit Wednesday, saying
the site is now offline.

The Recording Industry Association of America ( news - web sites) said it
may revive the lawsuit if the site reappears with a new name or location.

Critics had complained that the RIAA was setting a potentially dangerous
precedent by trying to force the Internet carriers to function as the
copyright police, a right it had under an untested provision of the 1998
Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( news - web sites).

It's unclear what happened to the Listen4ever site, which has been
inaccessible since at least Monday.

An e-mail from a representative for the site, identified as Mike Smith, said
only, "For some reason, the site is closed and will never come back." The
e-mail, sent using a Yahoo! account in response to a reporter's inquiry, did
not elaborate....