p2pnet - rss feed: RIAA singles out 10 Ohio students
p2pnet.net news:- Ohio University has been the worse hit of the various senior American schools Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG are attacking as part of their student marketing program.
Now their RIAA enforcement unit is going full bore after OU students who are defying the Big 4’s ‘pay us $3,000 or else’ extortion campaign.
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) announced Friday it’s filed 10 “John Doe” copyright-infringement lawsuits against OU students, says The Athens News.
“The suits, according to an RIAA press release, ‘cite individuals for illegally distributing copyrighted music on the Internet via unauthorised peer-to-peer services such as LimeWire’,” says the story, going on:
“The release also points out that once a suit is filed, the RIAA can subpoena OU to reveal the names of students who have been identified by the trade group as allegedly taking part in illegal file-sharing.”
Presumably, “other students at colleges besides OU, who were also warned in the first wave of letters, but did not accept RIAA’s settlement offer, are now facing lawsuits as well,” says the story.
More than 2,214 copyright holders have sent letters to OU this academic year complaining that their content is being distributed from the university network, but only the RIAA has sent pre-litigation settlement letters, says the university’s newspaper, The Post Online, continuing:
Fifty such letters arrived at the university last week as part of the third batch of the RIAA’s campaign. Engebretsen would not say whether those letters were for file-sharing that occurred after the first batch of RIAA notices in February, which also included 50 letters to OU.
More of the pre-litigation settlement letters have been directed at OU than any other college nationwide. “I don’t think there’s a rhyme or reason why we’re at the top of the list,” said Richard Carpinelli, associate vice president for budget and operations. “I think (file-sharing) is just as prevalent here as anywhere else.”
The university will continue to forward RIAA letters to and hold information sessions for students, Carpinelli said.
“I’m concerned about … the level of effort we’re having to put into this to serve a third party at a time of limited resources,” said Brice Bible, who will assume the chief information officer position today. “This is not a good use of the technical resources we have.”
Copyright complaints are handled by the university’s four-member information security team, which matches IP addresses identified in complaints with physical locations or OAK IDs for wireless users.
North Carolina State is among the universities putting up a determined fight against the RIAA on behalf of its students.
The RIAA has opened a page where it invites students to incriminate themselves, suggesting they pay $3,000 as part of the process.
So far, not one student or any of the 20,000 or so other innocent men, women and children alleged to have shared copyrighted Big 4 music online has appeared before a judge, a jury or any other legal authority, let alone been found guilty of anything.
NCS director of student legal services Pam Gerace is warning students not to tell the RIAA how they are, also pointing out that students who give personal information to the RIAA could be leaving themselves open for RIAA attacks at some later date.
“Years ago, college students were our best customers,” said RIAA president Cary Sherman recently.
“Now they’re among our worst customers.”
Meanwhile, New York lawyer Ray Beckerman, who’s representing a number of RIAA victims, has written a guide for school administrators who want to protect their charges.
He’s also saying students shouldn’t take advice of any kind from the RIAA, MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), their schools, “or indeed anyone who’s not their lawyer,” going on.
“These are my suggestions to college students being targeted by the RIAA:
- Join together with other students who are being targeted, pool your financial resources, and hire an attorney who is ready, willing, and able to (a) advise you of your rights and (b) fight the RIAA’s “John Doe” cases when they are brought.
- Bring to your college or university’s attention my “Open Letter to Colleges and Universities”
- Join or start campus charters of Digital Freedom and/or FreeCulture.
- Remember that the RIAA does not presently have your identity, and that by calling them or visiting their web site you may be giving them your identity.
- Read and learn about your rights.
- Organize.
- Organize.
- Organize.
Meanwhile, interestingly, Russia’s AllofMP3.com, the indie music site which is itself under heavy and constant attack from the Bush administration, has a list of schools its says are taking different approaches to the RIAA onslaughts, “ranging from mockery to full compliance”.
Also See:
worse hit - RIAA Ohio student attacks, March 9, 2007
student marketing program - RIAA college settlement plan, February 28, 2007
The Athens News - Ten OU students who refused RIAA’s settlement offer hit with federal, April 16, 2007
determined fight - 4th school says NO! to the RIAA, April 16, 2007
among our worst - Students ‘worst customers’: RIAA, March 23, 2007
The Post Online - 10 students face file-sharing suits, April 16, 2007
AllofMP3.com - RIAA vs. students: update, March 28, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
the RIAA should let everyone in the world settle for 100$
if you’ve ever downloaded prior to today’s date, pay 100$ and everything in the past you’ve downloaded is now legal
they’d make approximately 100$ * 2 million people
400,000,000$
April 17th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Other companies and organizations went bankrupt when they became not economically viable.
Those should disappear too, and they will.