p2pnet - rss feed: Congress in RIAA school attacks
p2pnet.net news:- US congressmen ‘Hollywood’ Howard Berman (left) and Lamar Smith have given American universities a May 31 deadline to endorse a survey which amounts to a pledge of allegiance to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel.
American universities are already under non-stop siege from the Big 4’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) which is trying to sue students into buying ‘product’.
Now, “congress” has, “threatened 20 universities with unspecified repercussions if they fail to provide ‘acceptable answers” about what they’re doing to stop or inhibit students from illegal downloading and file sharing’,” says Variety.
“If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act,” it has Smith, the “ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee,” declaring.
A “bipartisan group of members who serve on either judicial or educational committees in the House joined Smith in sending a letter and a survey on Tuesday to 20 schools identified as having the greatest amount of online piracy,” says the story. “The survey is an exhaustive questionnaire seeking detailed information about each university’s antipiracy efforts.”
Questions include:
- Does your institution have an ‘acceptable use’ policy that includes an unambiguous prohibition against illegal peer-to-peer file trafficking of copyrighted works through the use of campus computer and networking systems?”
- Please describe, in detail, your institution’s formal policy or procedure for processing and responding to notices of infringement received.
- Beginning with the 2002-03 academic year and for each school year thereafter, please identify the number of student violations of your institution’s acceptable use policies that involved illegal downloading, uploading, or file trafficking of copyrighted material. Please also note the number of works whose copyrights were infringed.
“We are asking these universities to report back to us by May 31,” Smith says in Variety. “We want to know exactly what they plan to do to stop illegal downloading on their campuses.”
Berman, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and a co-signer of the letter, says, “By answering the survey, universities will be required to examine how they address piracy on their campuses.”
Schools named are:
Columbia, Pennsylvania, Boston U, UCLA, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Duke, Rochester Institute of Technology, U of Massachusetts at Boston, Michigan, Ohio U, U of Nebraska at Lincoln, Tennessee, South Carolina, U of Massachusetts at Amherst, Michigan State, Howard, N.C. State and U. of Wisconsin at Madison.
It’s interesting to see Ohio is on the Smith/Berman list. Is this a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is up to?
Ohio U recently decided to act for the RIAA instead of students and yesterday, its The Post gleefully reported it wasn’t on the latest RIAA (s)hit list
Of equal interest, Brian Rust, spokesperson for University of Wisconsin-Madison says UW will, “participate in the study and provide documentation of the extensive steps taken to dissuade students from copyright infringement,” according to the school’s Badger Herald.
The University of Wisconsin was one of the universities declining to act as an unpaid RIAA copyright cop, refusing to forward RIAA ’settlement’ letters to students.
The “UW-Madison and all of our peer institutions have gone to great lengths to notify people, warn people and post notices via e-mail,” the Badger Herald has Rust declaring.
Meanwhile,, “The Recording Industry Associate of America, which is taking legal action against 53 students in the UW System, supported Wednesday’s congressional action, says the story. But this endorsement is hardly surprising considering the RIAA started the action in the first place.
“We recognize the many pressing issues facing administrators today, but we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to theft on such a massive scale,’ it has RIAA Mitch Bainwol saying fulsomely.
The chances of any particular person being individually targeted by the Big 4 music cartel’s RIAA, or any other Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG enforcement outfit, are akin to winning the lottery or being hit by lightning and, “Frankly, we’ve found that students know that downloading from unauthorized P2P systems is illegal, but the chance of getting caught isn’t great enough to discourage them from doing it,” admitted RIAA demi-boss Cary Sherman recently.
But what the hell, eh? Sue ‘em anyway!
Also See:
non-stop siege - RIAA attacks more US schools, May 1, 2007
Variety - Congress threatens colleges, May 2, 2007
act for the RIAA - Ohio University caves in to RIAA, April 26, 2007
The Post - No news is good news, May 2, 2007
Badger Herald - Congress steps into RIAA feud, May 3, 2007
unpaid RIAA copyright cop - Third school says No! to the RIAA, March 29, 2007
isn’t great enough - RIAA Ohio student attacks, March 9, 2007
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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!
May 4th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
This poses a problem, 100% of the universities is privately owned. The federal government has NO BUSINESS, especially these two poor excuses of congressmen, to be mouthpieces for the RIAA/MPAA.*walks away*
*walks back*
Of course, you know all of this already.