RIAA Afraid of Harvard 425
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "According to a report on p2pnet.net, the RIAA's latest anti-college round of "early settlement" letters targets 7 out of 8 Ivy League schools, but continues to give Harvard University a wide berth. This is perhaps the most astonishing display of cowardice exhibited to date by the multinational cartel of SONY BMG, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, and Vivendi/Universal (the "Big Four" record companies, which are rapidly becoming less "big"). The lesson to be drawn by other colleges and universities: "All bullies are cowards. Appeasement of bullies doesn't work. Standing up to bullies and fighting back has a much higher success rate.""
Try Freenet (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Cowardly? Give me a break. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, see i really could care less how low anyone stoops against them. In fact, you think of the most immoral acts that could be committed to their employee's, and i still wouldn't care.
What's happening at Yale? (Score:5, Interesting)
So what's going on between the RIAA/MPAA and Yale? Does Yale's reputation as being the "nice" law school (if that's not an oxymoron) result in them being attacked more or less? Anyone have data?
Just curious
Re:Submitter is Charles Nesson, Professor of Law (Score:5, Interesting)
Berklee and Julliard also immune seemingly (Score:5, Interesting)
Then again, while music students have more music downloaded/shared in general than almost anyone else I know, they also actually purchase more music than anyone I know.
Re:Cowardly? Give me a break. (Score:5, Interesting)
Many thanks for your fine work in this area.
I have an experience leading to a question. I was involved in a civil suit, the other side's attorney pulled shenanigans, lying to the court, etc. My lawyer was incensed, and it seemed the suit was going to drag on for years, so he offered to settle with me for my hoped-for amount out of his pocket provided I release him to sue the other attorney (he was going to make way more money that way, he was that confident). I was ok with that, so that's how it went down.
From that, I learned that attorneys can be sued for shenanigans - malfeasance? - and that's my question(s). Could the RIAA be stopped that way? Attorneys are officers of the court, that makes them liable for malfeasance charges, doesn't it? If not in court, what about the Bar Association(s)? (All I know about the bar I learned on TV.....)
Can't the attorneys be punished and thereby discourage those practices? Is our system so broken that the answer is really no?
Thanks,
Earl
Re:Cowardly? Give me a break. (Score:5, Interesting)
I also wonder if there might be a way to bring in this evidence at each and every trial. Unfortunately I can think of one very negative side effect for those defending against such tactics - weighing this evidence might make trials more costly (favouring the RIAA's deep pockets). However if it were presented well might it not be the difference between winning and losing? If done right is there any chance that showing this consistent abuse might result in similar actions being thrown out summarily?
Surely there is something in the system that attempts to limit repeated abuse/harassment? Some kind of provision for those who cry wolf and tie the courts up. If not there sure ought to be.
Are these thoughts pure fantasy or might this work in the real world? I defer to your wisdom in this. I am certainly not a lawyer. (I'm not even an American).
RIAA @ non-Ivy (Score:2, Interesting)
A lawyer's responsibility (Score:2, Interesting)
1) To represent his or her client(s) in the best and most effective manner possible.
2) To plead cases that they can win - to do otherwise violates Responsibility #1
3) To make money for their client or to prevent their client from losing money by counseling them not to try a case that is not winnable and/or to settle out if necessary to minimize damages.
The attorneys for the RIAA are civil litigation attorneys.
When the target of litigation is Harvard University, arguably the most prestigious law school in the world, by counseling against pressing action against the university, these attorneys are flfilling all three of these Responsibilities because you can bet your bottom dollar that the legal counsel for Harvard University will most assuredly make the pressing of ANY case against them an EXTREMELY costly affair, indeed! Not to mention that trying to win against the best law school in the world is a really, really tough thing to do...
And, by doing so, they are effectively representing their clients.
In any law practice, that's a Good Day at the office!
Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
They don't really need to cost us anything. They're a self-autonomous entity, capable of earning the money to sustain itself off people who like what they do, and because there are many people out there who do, they are very valuable. The only reason they're having any significant impact on the rest of society is because of piracy. I would have thought that piracy itself would be the liability here.
An analogy: a man keeps getting assaulted by assassins, and cries foul murder over and over again. Everybody is sick of him screaming. Would the sensible approach be a) dispatch with him, or b) dispatch with the assassins?
I'm a senior at Harvard (Score:5, Interesting)
1) most kids here are too busy with chairing their Model-UN-Investment-Banking-Labor-Movement meeting to even care about music, so they listen to a few cds and buy tracks from itunes (like many college campuses with high tuition, most kids have some hardware from apple) and hear most of their music on the loudspeakers at god-awful binge drinking parties
2) the few kids who listen to a lot of music are into indie bands, and the RIAA seems to go after folks who download more popular tunes. also there's pretty significant downloading/computer-illiteracy here (kids dont have the time to waste playing with the computer, and thus dont really understand where to get music illegally)
3) there's only like a couple hundred cs majors here, and there's only one out of that group with immaculate taste in music (me!) so I'm probably the only person at harvard that the RIAA could ever be angry at, but I don't download music.
There's nobody to sue!
Note to reader: The error bounds on this comprehensive study may be non-trivial.
Re:The reason is much simpler (Score:2, Interesting)
Fifteen years ago I was on top of the world in what I chose to specialize in. How useful is it today to program assembly on a 6502? Did I lose knowledge? I think so - in that respect the knowledge did not evolve and became worthless. Unless I replace it with new knowledge, I am at a net loss. Just because I learned last week how to do Java does not mean I know 2x as much as I did before. I'm just treading water at 1x.
Re:The reason is much simpler (Score:2, Interesting)
RIAA #2: "Uh, now that you put it that way, let's not."
Re:Actually, they're suing 7/8 of the Ivy League. (Score:4, Interesting)
If they sued a university or college, they'd have a fight on their hand... which is what the RIAA assiduously avoids.
Re:The reason is much simpler (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, he was already challenged by turning his laptop on, which is why he was one of the few who refused to use anything but chalk and blackboard to do his lectures. No powerpoint, not even overhead projector, the less tech the better.
Do I know more about programming than he does? Heck, anyone who has touched VB does. Would I dare to say I can hold a candle to him in math? Never. And I was good in math.
You will never know as much as your teacher in his subject after leaving him. That is a given. If your teacher is your primary if not only source of information about a subject, you're prone to know less about it than him. At best, you can know as much as he does. And even after leaving him and continuing on your own, he has a head start you can hardly catch up to.
Re:Cowardly? Give me a break. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:An Open Letter to Dorks and Losers (Score:4, Interesting)
I am sure even you will agree that
1. Appeasement would never deter a bully.
2. A 'dork' or 'loser', or apparent dork or loser, standing up to a bully, enjoys the element of surprise.
3. Courage is a measure of internal fortitude and heart, not a measure of physical prowess.
4. Throughout history, there have been many instances in which courage carried the day against physically superior force.
As to any suggestion that the RIAA lawyers, who likely occupy leadership positions within your organization, will prevail... we shall see, we shall see.
With all due respect to the fine work carried on by your organization, I must reiterate; all bullies are cowards. I call upon your members to follow the lead of Darth Vader, and abandon the ways of the Dark Side.
Re:The reason is much simpler (Score:2, Interesting)
I have a set of Popular Mechanics Do-it-Yourself Encyclopedias that has complete instructions, photos and diagrams for building a powerful crossbow using a leaf spring out of a car. The copyright date is 1955, so the books aren't THAT old.
Re:RICO (Score:2, Interesting)