University of Kansas Will Not Forward RIAA Letters 126
Bonewalker writes "Looks like the University of Kansas may not be as pro-RIAA (or anti-student) as initially assumed last week from our recent discussion. From the Chronicle article: 'Kansas officials told the student newspaper that they will not heed the recording industry's request to pass pre-litigation notices on to 14 students accused of music piracy. Many institutions have forwarded the letters -- which offer students a chance to settle file-sharing claims out of court at discounted rates -- but some have declined to do so, citing concerns over students' privacy.' Of course, this doesn't make that 'one-strike' policy any less flawed, but it shows that they aren't simply throwing their students under the RIAA bus, as one poster put it."
Makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
I'm JOKING... I think.
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Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)
If students don't want to live with this policy, they can move off campus, and get AT&T or Cox broadband services. Sure it costs a LOT more to live off campus in Lawrence, but, if you want to do things like distribute other people's music, that is a choice you have to make. Of course, with the money you save by living on campus, you could buy the media you want and use your computer for classwork instead.
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Sounds like an easy college prank to play on unsuspecting people.
(That's the problem with presumption of guilt upon accusation.)
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We were fiddling around and discovered some kind of netware broadcast tool that would pop up a message box on someones machine by IP address. So, we figured out someone's IP we wanted to prank and popped up a very official looking network message. It said something like "excessive non-work related internet usage, eliminate non-work traffic immediately" or something l
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If that is correct, then you are most certainly justified in your opinion.
I suspect they have won far more than they have lost and are on-target 99% of the time. For various reasons such wins are never reported. They aren't "newsworthy" in the current sense of the word. If this is the case, then thi
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Except that the RIAA have a history of sending out mistaken letters, and using legal threats as extortion. If the RIAA truly did their research, and only sent out letters to those who had actually been infringing their copyrights, you might have more of a point.
Also on the list of fees students don't have to pay is an "RIAA legwork" fee for having the school figure out which student to forward the letter on to.
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KU's rationale for One Strike Policy (Score:5, Informative)
G.O.D. (Score:5, Funny)
They'd probably get a better response from places like Kansas with that branch.
Re:G.O.D. (Score:5, Funny)
True! (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's not forget that KU was where the student union was burnt down and classes were called early back during the Vietnam war. It was serious stuff.
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ugh. that was my worst backronym ever.
In loco parentis (Score:3, Insightful)
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They are, however, forced there by parents. I'm an RA at an off-campus housing project. We just finished sealing the parking lots and driveways, and I can guarantee to you that on the night of move-in day, I will be picking at least one 18 year old kid off the pavement that he has just stained with his blood and vomit. I'll have to key-in to at least one bedroom to return a beligerent, drunk teenager to hi
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It's what happens to parents in a country where it's acceptable to say, break into fisticuffs over your kid's [sports, academics, whatev]
And we wonder why there are so many 30+ year old people living with non-dependent parents. They never have a chance to grow up and consequently don't wan
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By your use of this term, you don't know what it means. College students are almost all over 18 and therefore not minors; saying a university is "in loco parentis" with respect to them is nonsensical.
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so instead of a "head's up" from the school the students get a notice of pending legal action and less time to negotiate a settlement or prepare a defense.
a good parent tries to discipline their kids before handing them over to the legal system for pirating a few bucks worth of thoughtless major label tunes.
this argument doesn't fly with a judge or a jury when your playlist looks stronger than the Clear Channel outlets in New York, Chicago and Dallas
"Discounted [settlement] rates"? (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing, the RIAA is now in the business of offering discounted lawsuit settlements. "Our lowest offer ever! Settle for only $999, no evidence scrutinized! Limited time so act now!"
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My ISP forwarded a letter to me (Score:5, Interesting)
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They wrote a "cease and desist" letter on a pair of underwear? Wow! They'd get a better compliance if they write it on a bra - IMHO.
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I'd much prefer a 'hey... we saw that!'
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So I've complied and haven't downloaded any more TV shows.
Incidentally I also never watched the Black Donnellys again (it wasn't on at a great time) and I think it's since been canceled.
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Stil a waste of time (Score:2)
How does this help the student? (Score:3, Interesting)
All the article says is that "The University will not, however, forward students the RIAA pre-litigation letter, which gives them the opportunity to settle out of court."
How does this help the student? That's a genuine question, not a rhetorical question. Anyone know the answer?
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This letter has nothing to do with potential court case - you don't have to warn someone that you are going to sue them. As some have mentioned, it is akin to extortion - give us money or we'
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On the other side, the RIAA can get a subpoena whether the school forwards the letter or not. They don't need the school to "admit" it knows the student's identity - they just assume it does.
Third Time (Score:1, Interesting)
Enough with this sensationalist "omg this university is in with the RIAA". If you ask me they are hurting their student population by not telling the students they have been targeted. That is all the other universities are doing. Telling them that t
As a Jayhawk... (Score:2)
Just a few days ago I was ripping into old KU for pandering to the MAFIAA, and now we've got this partial about-face. Makes me want to walk over to walk over to the chancellor's house and tell him that this was a good decision.
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Also, the universities are not interfering with the law, if provided with a subpoena for student information they have to comply. All this does is tell the RIAA stormtroopers that THEY need to comply with the l
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I'm reminded of the godfather. (Score:4, Insightful)
Somehow I don't think that's far off.
my letter to the RIAA... (Score:3, Interesting)
below ive appended the letter which i am sending to the RIAA.
additionally, this recent story about the University of Kansas has inspired me to write letters to the other universities that have indeed forwarded the letters to the students -- regarding my decision to rule out all of them as places to do a PhD.
i highly encourage all of you to send similar letters. its time people start doing something about this rather than just complaining about it on internet forums.
--------
Dear Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Warner,
I would like to inform you of my recent decision to stop purchasing music produced by your record labels.
In the past, I was a strong supporter of the music industry, music artists and the Compact Disc technology. I regularly purchased CD albums for several reasons. First, I consider myself an audiophile and enjoy the quality of music offered by the Compact Disc format. Second, I collect music and have over 200 CDs. I often re-listen to an album many years after buying it. Third, I believe music artists should be rewarded for their hard work and skill. With respect to my favorite bands (Tool, the Cardigans and Garbage) I also believe it provides incentive for them to continue producing music. It was because of these three reasons that I generally opposed and condemned the idea of downloading music illegally. I considered myself to be, what many refer to as, the music industry's ideal customer.
In the past few weeks, this all changed; and since your companies' prosperity in the music industry is entirely enabled by persons like myself, I would like to tell you why.
I have grown tired of reading about the endless lawsuits and out-of-court settlement letters spewed from your companies' legal departments. I am a 25-year-old American student pursuing an MSc in Germany and find your methodology for dealing with students at American universities revolting and offensive. I also believe your companies' business model is flawed, rigid and destined to fail. Your inability to adapt to a high-quality digital distribution model (without DRM) will quickly undermine your revenue stream. There is no justification for a music CD to cost almost twice the price of a DVD movie; especially when one compares the production costs of the two.
Today, when I walked into the local music store, I took a look at the price of a new CD release, considered buying it, then decided to go home and illegally download it instead. I will continue to act accordingly until the RIAA changes its attitude, business model and pricing scheme.
This letter would not be justly sent without an offer to regain me as a customer. I therefore propose that you A) offer all music through iTunes DRM-free and with the option to download the files in a "lossless" format and B) reduce song prices to $0.50 per song with 50% of that going directly to the artist and the other 50% to be split at your discretion between the RIAA and Apple. Should you agree to said proposal, I will happily purchase your music again on a frequent basis and actively campaign for the RIAA amongst my social networks and on Slashdot.org.
Sincerely,
Benjamin P
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ive bought at least 200 CDs.
lets average 1 CD at $15 (ive paid both more and less for many of them)
minimum spent on CDs, 15 * 200 = $3000
and considering ~$3000 is what the settlement letters are asking from most of the victims, id say the RIAA douche bags do indeed care about an amount as minimal as $3000. multiply that by the number of other disgruntled customers like myself...and u get a net sum on par with t
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The unfortunate thing is that your letter will never reach their eyes. These guys have people working to filter what passes their way... with salaries in the six and seven figures, their time is too valuable to waste with small-timers like most of us here. Either it will end up in the round metal filing cabinet, or if someone actually reads it and notices your confession of piracy, it will end up being forwarded to their legal department. You'll know for sure if you get a
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which is why i plan on sending copies directly to the CEOs or any other major entity in the organizations. how difficult can it be to find out some high-profile guys address?
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it's a trap!! (Score:2)
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Wow, there are an amazing number of things wrong with your letter.
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But, going with it, unless a woman walked up to a man and said "I'll marry you, and even let you beat me black and blue if you promise to whore me out to anyone who has the money" then it doesn't really line up remotely.
Let the artists who don't like the game make thier own label like Manowar's Joey DeMaio did [magiccirclemusic.com].
Otherwise, no, they don't deserve any sympathy. The labels haven't changed their game in decades, so it's not like they can claim they didn't know it was coming. If t
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How much should they get?
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I disaree. The various labels might
rights (Score:2)
It's Not Enough (Score:2)
they have no intention of actually pursuing,
citing non-applicable laws,
with an illegal joinder of Doe Defendants,
based on flimsy to non-existent real evidence,
and no opposition to this farce,
to get a judge to issue the required subpoena's that would force UK to turn over student identities to the Record Industry extortion machine. Only then will I feel tha
They don't know where the IP numbers are... (Score:2)
This supposes that KU can associate a specific IP number with a known machine. Unless practice has improved a lot, they can't -- the allocation of IP numbers was a total, decentralized mess for a number of years, with nothing even remotely resembling a central registry. In my department, the "IP registry" consisted of a piece of notebook paper taped to a file cabinet in a supply closet. The situation may have improved over the last six months -- I vaguely recall someone wandering around systematically recor
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On a separate note, why not DHCP? I've worked in labs that were zoos like that (and worse, there were traffic generators that could produce arbitrary packets [any: source/dest IP, MAC, any datagram, any length up to 32Kb]). We had two private ranges, one DHCP and one static, they were on the same subnet, but you could have the zoo on 10.0.1.0 and dynamic on 10.0.2.0, as an example.
-nB
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Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaa
-nB
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Amazing is the number of mfg./industry systems are still running on Win95,98, and even a bunch on DOS!...all kinds of networking and interface hacks required to keep the woolly mammoths plodding along.
I salute you, and award you the 'Wiley Coyote: Sooper Geniu
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Thanks -- very useful information. Okay, so they can track in the dorms now; that's an improvement. About five years ago there was a notorious incident where a machine(s) somewhere on the dorm network got hijacked and started generating massive quantities of spam. Their response: shut down the entire network (acutally, I think via routers they actually isolated it to one or two of those huge dorms on Daisy Hill (hey, this is an internal Jayhawk conversation right, even if this is Slashdot?) and just shut do
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How is this an invasion of privacy? (Score:2)
How is passing the letters on to the students an invasion of privacy?
If the university were to pass on the name of the student they believe was the one using the network at a specific IP address at a specific time, then perhaps that would be just such an invasion of privacy. But I don't see how telling the student that they suspect was using that IP address then about the letter, or passing a copy of the letter to them (surely the university would keep a copy for their "files") invades the student's priva
Re:What else do they decide to forward or not? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What else do they decide to forward or not? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What else do they decide to forward or not? (Score:5, Insightful)
The RIAA contacts the university saying IPs X.X.X.X and Y.Y.Y.Y have been sharing songs. Please give the users this letter. Other universities have done the look up and found which users were those IP addresses belonged to and forwarded the letters on to the students. Kansas has effectively told the RIAA to fuck off.
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IANAL - but it seems to me they've also effectively taken part in blocking a legal action. AIUI, that can make the University of Kansas liable/responsible.
Re:What else do they decide to forward or not? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Spam everyone and get the details of the people who bite.
Its effectively tricking people out of their privacy.
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Oh, you can guess. And most of the time you'd be right. But it isn't proof. I suppose in a country where people are put to death for having the wrong skin color in the wrong place that you coul
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idiot
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Very few poeple are idiots; you should try to understand the post. Consider this part of growing up.
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Got a cite for that claim of 'standard' procedure? Or are you just blowing smoke and being insulting to make yourself feel superior?
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Ahhh, 'effectively'. That one little word that separates fantasy from reality.
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It seems like the university would be kind of obligated to at least once launch an internal investigation like they would for plagiarism - someone is claiming the university's resources are being used for illegal purposes. Until they do an investigation at least once, they have no idea how credible the RIAA and their claims are.
They would not have to give up the names to anybody outside the university, but they c
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If all they have is an IP address it does not show anything about who was at the keyboard. If they get that far, they can examine the computer and find pirated files. This still does not say who was at the keyboard when that occurred. Are you responsible for everything your computer does? Ever heard of spyware and BackOrifice? Of course you can't be held responsible for files on your computer.
If the Un
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It just seems like a university would have a policy for dealing with complaints of illegal activity by students on campus using university resources.
When I was in school, a guy in our dorm found a bunch of backpacks, books, and calculators in his roommate's closet. He repor
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At least you think you do.
Re:What else do they decide to forward or not? (Score:5, Insightful)