RIAA Announces New Campus Lawsuit Strategy

An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again revising their lawsuit strategy, and will now be sending college students and others "pre-lawsuit letters." People will now be able to settle for a discount. How nice."

A letter to the RIAA

[Dunbal]

Dear RIAA,

      I feel that I must point out that the quality of the music distributed by your members has sunk to such depths that if I have to listen to any more of it, I might just gnaw my own leg off in desperation. Of course such a situation would be grounds for an inmediate lawsuit by myself against your members for the sum of $3,000,000 US. I ask that you kindly desist from producing such self-mutilation inspiring music and, failing that, I am willing to settle for ten percent ($300,000 US) in advance in order not to pursue the lawsuit in the event of my loss of a leg. Thank you.

      Sincerely...

Re:Piracy is hurting?

[SirTalon42]

A while back Slashdot posted some articles which confirmed that RIAA's profits were up, but their growth was slower than the rest of the economy so they use that to say their profits are 'down'. I think the last article I saw Slashdot post about it was several months ago.

Re:Wrong, clearly you don't know the law

[Anonymous Coward]

No "crime" has been committed. The action is a tort. The violation of the Copyright statute for non-monetary gain is a civil matter, not a criminal matter.

So the wronged party (RIAA in this case) is approaching the wrongdoer and saying "look, we can sue you for $X in damages, but we'd like to spare you and us the trouble of a court proceeding to collect said damages. Sign here, pay us $N in reduced damages to cover what we feel are reasonable damages in this instance, and in this contract you are signing you will see that we voluntarily give up the right to sue you for this particular infringement in the future."

Just as if your kid broke one of my windows accidentally with an errant baseball. I could sue you, but I'd probably propose that we settle out of court for reasonable damages. Hardly a crime for me to propose that. And if you choose not to pay, I can of course take you to court.

No "crime" is being swept under the rug. Just because you wish it was extortion or blackmail does not make it so. You ANAL and all of the moderators here clearly ANAL ;)

felony charge - for a screener posted to the web

[westlake]

The violation of the Copyright statute for non-monetary gain is a civil matter, not a criminal matter.

LOS ANGELES Feb 22, 2007 (AP)-- A man who allegedly uploaded a copy of the film "Flushed Away" onto the Internet after getting a copy from an Oscar voter faces a felony charge.

Salvador Nunez Jr., 27, was charged with copyright infringement and faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He was scheduled to appear in court March 1.

Prosecutors said he obtained a copy of the movie after it was sent in advance to his sister, an Oscar voter and member of The International Animated Film Society.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received a tip in early January that someone put "Flushed Away" on the Internet, and a digital watermark identified it as an Academy screener film.

When interviewed by FBI agents, Nunez acknowledged he uploaded "Flushed Away" and the Oscar-nominated film "Happy Feet" onto the Internet, court documents said. However, investigators only found a copy of "Flushed Away" in his computer hard drive.

It wasn't immediately known whether Nunez has retained an attorney.

Man Charged With Uploading Movie to Web [go.com]

There are many points of interest here, but most significantly the feds decision to prosecute the uploader on the felony charge. That would be a first and a major change in policy.

100% lying

[insomniac8400]

Purdue had around 40 notices from the RIAA when they were paying for the stupid Rukus music site for all freshman to have access. When they dropped the service because it was dumb(and I think it didn't even work on ipods), the next year they get over 1,000 notices? It shows the RIAA is just trying to extort colleges into signing what are probably expensive contracts with crappy and useless download services.

Re:College student feeling the wrath

[r_jensen11]

C:\? What's C:\? I think I remember something about A:\ and C:\, but that was back in 1993 and Windows 3.1... Fortunately, all my media is stored in /home/Media/, and if the right precautions are made, it can even look like there *is* no /home/Media/, only a /home/!

I have a friend that got an email from our University saying that some movie industry threatened them because he downloaded Babel. He also said that it included instructions. He didn't tell me what these instructions were, but I seriously doubt that they could be followed by any OS other than Windows or OSX....

Fortunately, however, I've discovered Jamendo [jamendo.com], and now I'm listening to music that never gets on the radio, and all of the music on there is protected by Creative Commons. I much prefer their philosophy over the RIAA's and the MPAA's.

Spyware?

[mgiuca]

OK have I missed something - cause one thing nobody has commented on is this para from TFA:

One of the agents of the RIAA, such as Media Sentry, downloads a file from an unsuspecting file-sharer. A screenshot is made of the individual's shared directory, or several files are downloaded to ensure a viable case. The individual's IP address is then obtained. The RIAA then subpoenas the file-sharer's ISP requesting the personal information associated with that IP address when the alleged upload occurred.

OK so, basically the RIAA sets up a file for you to download just so they can catch you (Entrapment [wikipedia.org]), which then installs itself on your computer against your wishes or knowledge (distribution of Spyware [wikipedia.org]), takes screenshots of your computer and sends them to RIAA (clear invasion of privacy [wikipedia.org]).

And this is to enforce the law? Aren't there laws against doing such things?

Furthermore, what shitty evidence is an IP address. IP addresses do not equal individuals, for several reasons.

Boycott RIAA

[Intron]

Gizmodo [gizmodo.com] is calling for a one-month boycott of the RIAA sponsoring music labels: Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal, and Sony BMG. Don't buy anything during March 2007 to let them know what you think of these tactics.

You answered your own question

[theelectron]

If college students as a whole can barely afford books, rent, food, etc, then how come so many of them have fancy cars and computer systems?

I think you answered your own question:

The student can make out even better if mommy and daddy give him/her a car and pay all tuition/room board plus give some extra.

I'd also argue that a vast majority of students do not have said niceties. I am currently a college student as a very large public university (#2 on the RIAA college pirating list) and I can verify that a very large majority of undergraduate students (the ones who live in the dorms using the campus network and getting the piracy letters) are lucky if they have a car, and very lucky if they have a car newer than 5 years old. Undergraduate students do NOT have much disposable income. The grad students may have a tough schedule, but at least they get paid for it. They (and the professors) are the ones who drive the nice cars around here. I don't know where you went to college or how recently, but what you are saying is simply not true at any of the state colleges in this state (I visit many of them around here to visit old friends) and I would imagine it would not be much different at most public schools.