RIAA Adds 23 Colleges to Hit List, Avoids Harvard 282
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has added 23 new colleges and universities to its hit list, but deliberately omitted Harvard, apparently afraid of the reaction it's likely to get there, having been told by 2 Harvard law professors to take a hike. 'Under the new scheme, the RIAA sends out what it calls 'pre-litigation' settlement letters. Actually, they're self-incrimination documents and they're designed to extort preset amounts of around $3,000 from students with the empty promise that by paying up, they'll remove the threat of being hauled into court on charges of copyright infringement. In reality, all the students are doing is providing the RIAA with personal and private information which can conceivably be used against them ...'"
Illegal? (Score:5, Interesting)
These letters are quite ridiculous (Score:5, Interesting)
The spy in the sewage.. (Score:5, Interesting)
But getting back to the core of the matter, I have to wonder why colleges are bending over about a matter so core to their own liability:
Colleges 'pirate' thousands of documents every year in a way that is NOT allowed by current US copyright law.. and they want to believe it's students.. not professors downloading papers that their library hasn't subscribed to? Taking a hard line on music copyright will only kill the colleges that take it up! They won't only drive away students... but also professors who suddenly can't do their research because of miserable libraries (BU COUGH).
The letter is more dangerous for RIAA than student (Score:3, Interesting)
IP Evidence? (Score:5, Interesting)
Elsewhere on the website, Mike O'Donnell, a University of Chicago law professor, gives a good discussion [p2pnet.net] of why the RIAA's policy of identifying people solely by their "unique" IP address is a load of crap. I'm honestly surprised more people haven't used this kind of a defense when the RIAA targets them. Maybe it's because it's not well-known knowledge yet?
In any case, I'm glad that I'm living off-campus next year as my university is on that list and is now notorious for its one strike policy. WTF is up with the idiots in Kansas anyways?
Extortion, pure and simple (Score:4, Interesting)
We've seen ample evidence that an IP address does not necessarily correlate to an individual. In an actual court case, the RIAA would have to also show that copyrighted material exists on the computer in question (through an actual forensic search of the hard drive), that the files were placed in a shared folder that can be accessed by others, that those same files have been actually distributed to others through a P2P network, that no one else has access to the computer in question, that the person in question was actually the one who placed the material there and that the computer has not been compromised through hacking of any kind, etc., etc., etc. WAY easier just to extort a quick $3K a pop through fear.
I wonder why certain schools are targeted, and certain individuals at that school. Are certain universities passed over because they have a law school? A savvy law or pre-law student may well see through the bullshit and give the RIAA a run for its money in court. (And may well have relatives who are lawyers and/or sympathetic professors willing to knowledgably defend them.) Someone in another message said that 30 letters had been sent to the college he works at. Now, unless that is one tiny little college, I find it hard to believe that only 30 students file-share. I wonder if they target specific schools and dorms within those schools because of the type of students likely to be caught up in the dragnet? (I.e., naive freshman, yes; senior pre-law student, no.)
It's not for nothing that so many of you refer to the RIAA as the MAFIAA. The tactics are the same. Tell me, who does the Mafia go after when they run a protection or extortion racket? The big corporation with a bevy of lawyers and a lot of power and influence? Or the small businessman, the store owner who has few resources, barely keeps his head above water, and may well be an immigrant of questionable status or otherwise afraid of losing what little he has? Bingo -- they go after the weak, ignorant, and vulnerable.
The RIAA has been VERY lucky so far in that they have only in a few cases gone after the "wrong" sort of target that will fight back. No matter how careful they are, hopefully sooner or later they will hit a few more people who can really make trouble for them.
Let's help out the RIAA (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey Everybody... let's all get together and help out our favorite greedy, draconian, ass monkeys!
Is there anybody out there who'd like to instigate an attack against Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the Ivy League in the name of the RIAA? I mean if they're so hot to trot, smacking colleges up side the head, they should go straight after the big guys! Put them in their place. Put the fear of God into the rest of the Universities in this country! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Someone needs to make them put up, or shut up.
Either their case has merits, and therefore they should be going after every college... or it is groundless, and they're guilty of frivolous lawsuits in the name of extorting those least able to protect themselves from legal harassment. So we need to all step up and let them know, that they can't just go around picking on smaller schools and weaking institutions.
The RIAA wants to poke a horets nest with a stick, they should get all the stinging their money can buy!
Re:Not a prison? (Score:1, Interesting)
My locker partner in high school had some problems with drugs. He learned that the police were doing a search one day and went home "sick". He left his coat in the locker. The drug dog went off on the locker. As they knew my locker partner had gone home, I was pulled out of class. I was questioned by the principal, two law enforcement officers and one of the school security guards for twenty minutes while the drug dog was at my croch. The reason he went off was my friend's coat. It smelled like pot and had trace amounts in one of the pockets. It was not enough to get him in any trouble, but it sure taught me a lesson about searches. They wasted my time, pulled me out of class (one I actually liked which was rare), and I had to deal with accusations. I was labeled a drug user after that. Teachers would publicly accuse me of using drugs. My grades fell because they thought I couldn't possible do my work on drugs. I must be cheating. In reality, I was mislabeled a drug user and had a shitty home life.
I don't have a lot of respect for any rights violations. This happened to me in the 90s (97 i think). What do they do to high school students now?
Just wondering... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Illegal? (Score:1, Interesting)
As a student of one of those hives of villainy... (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh, right... $3000 is a pretty big motivator.
The RIAA are not the police, but they certainly seem to be acting like it. There has got to be some law clearly being broken by their strong-arm enforcement and intimidation tactics. The crime of copyright infringement is minor compared to the slimey law tactics I keep reading about. What is it going to take to stop it?
Hey, imagine that... (Score:2, Interesting)
This only makes the fact that this campaign is based on preying on ignorance all the more obvious. No law students would fall for this, so they go to schools where they don't have to worry about law students.
Educating minds (Score:2, Interesting)