RIAA and freedom to copy
Is anyone aware of the effort by RIAA to force college students to pay huge cash settlements of supposed copyright infringement? They are going to the student's IP source, and getting IP addresses of students who have used P2P tools. They send threatening letters - telling them they are illegally copying music using P2P technology then proposing to settle the infringement for large sums. There is no actual law suit, just the threat of a suit and a proposed settlement. Does anyone know the legal precedent for such threats? Is file sharing really copyright infringement? Dr. Alexander Randall Professor of Communication University of the Virgin Islands
Is anyone aware of the effort by RIAA to force college students to pay huge cash settlements of supposed copyright infringement?
Not aware of any legal precedents (yet) but I have heard that some unis have pushed-back and told the RIAA they won't do their dirty work unless the RIAA pays for the staff costs associated with log analysis and such. Others have rolled over and supported the RIAA, too.
There is no actual law suit, just the threat of a suit and a proposed settlement.
That's the RIAA's strategy, such that it is. Unfortunately in it's other non-college cases where they use similar tactics, they're being tossed out of court with growing frequency for any number of reasons -- including for suing the wrong person or having very circumstantial evidence to support their claims.
Is file sharing really copyright infringement?
My own personal view is that the RIAA (and MPAA, by extension) would have the public and courts believe that 'file sharing' is the same as copyright infringement.....and their ongoing public statements over the years continues to strongly-suggest or equate the notion of 'file sharing' with something that is (or should be) a criminal act. It's this belief that has made the entertainment industry so reviled because that "fear of file-sharing" is what's led to things like HDMI, PVP, AACS, DECSS and any number of other technological controls contributing to the creation of a marketplace of barely-interoperable digital entertainment devices and services that increases customer costs and levels of aggravation. Additionally, ongoing legal woes pertaining to DMCA and the various provisions regarding 'copyright circumvention' --- particularly when DMCA has been used to threaten (and sue) people for reasons that far exceed its original spirit of enactment by Congress -- have raised serious issues about free speech, basic research, and assorted aspects of what constitutes "information" and "knowledge" going back to DMCA's enactment in 1998.
From a more scholarly and legal perspective, Lessig, Littman, Felten, and Granick (attornies all, I think) have written copiously on this topic over the years and would be the ideal starting point for looking at this matter in greater detail. I strongly-endorse any and all of these folks' writings as fantastic primers on these very complex issues at the core of the information society.
-rick
A possible starting point: http://www.google.com/search?q=riaa+letter+college Also: Read, Brock. "Record Companies to Accused Pirates: Deal or No Deal?", The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2007-03-16, p. A31. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i28/28a03101.htm The website students are directed to: http://www.p2plawsuits.com/P2P_00_Home.aspx (and Ed Felton is a professor of computer science, not an attorney) -mz ----- Michael T. Zimmer Doctoral Candidate, Culture and Communication, New York University Student Fellow, Information Law Institute, NYU Law School e: michael.zimmer@nyu.edu w: http://michaelzimmer.org On May 3, 2007, at 8:58 PM, Richard Forno wrote:
Is anyone aware of the effort by RIAA to force college students to pay huge cash settlements of supposed copyright infringement?
Not aware of any legal precedents (yet) but I have heard that some unis have pushed-back and told the RIAA they won't do their dirty work unless the RIAA pays for the staff costs associated with log analysis and such. Others have rolled over and supported the RIAA, too.
There is no actual law suit, just the threat of a suit and a proposed settlement.
That's the RIAA's strategy, such that it is. Unfortunately in it's other non-college cases where they use similar tactics, they're being tossed out of court with growing frequency for any number of reasons -- including for suing the wrong person or having very circumstantial evidence to support their claims.
Is file sharing really copyright infringement?
My own personal view is that the RIAA (and MPAA, by extension) would have the public and courts believe that 'file sharing' is the same as copyright infringement.....and their ongoing public statements over the years continues to strongly-suggest or equate the notion of 'file sharing' with something that is (or should be) a criminal act. It's this belief that has made the entertainment industry so reviled because that "fear of file-sharing" is what's led to things like HDMI, PVP, AACS, DECSS and any number of other technological controls contributing to the creation of a marketplace of barely-interoperable digital entertainment devices and services that increases customer costs and levels of aggravation.
Additionally, ongoing legal woes pertaining to DMCA and the various provisions regarding 'copyright circumvention' --- particularly when DMCA has been used to threaten (and sue) people for reasons that far exceed its original spirit of enactment by Congress -- have raised serious issues about free speech, basic research, and assorted aspects of what constitutes "information" and "knowledge" going back to DMCA's enactment in 1998.
From a more scholarly and legal perspective, Lessig, Littman, Felten, and Granick (attornies all, I think) have written copiously on this topic over the years and would be the ideal starting point for looking at this matter in greater detail. I strongly-endorse any and all of these folks' writings as fantastic primers on these very complex issues at the core of the information society.
-rick
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Ah, yes. I put Felten in as an afterthought. My goof! -rf On 5/3/07 9:05 PM, "Michael Zimmer" <michael.zimmer@nyu.edu> wrote:
A possible starting point: http://www.google.com/search?q=riaa+letter+college
Also: Read, Brock. "Record Companies to Accused Pirates: Deal or No Deal?", The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2007-03-16, p. A31. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i28/28a03101.htm
The website students are directed to: http://www.p2plawsuits.com/P2P_00_Home.aspx
(and Ed Felton is a professor of computer science, not an attorney)
-mz
----- Michael T. Zimmer Doctoral Candidate, Culture and Communication, New York University Student Fellow, Information Law Institute, NYU Law School e: michael.zimmer@nyu.edu w: http://michaelzimmer.org
On May 3, 2007, at 8:58 PM, Richard Forno wrote:
Is anyone aware of the effort by RIAA to force college students to pay huge cash settlements of supposed copyright infringement?
Not aware of any legal precedents (yet) but I have heard that some unis have pushed-back and told the RIAA they won't do their dirty work unless the RIAA pays for the staff costs associated with log analysis and such. Others have rolled over and supported the RIAA, too.
There is no actual law suit, just the threat of a suit and a proposed settlement.
That's the RIAA's strategy, such that it is. Unfortunately in it's other non-college cases where they use similar tactics, they're being tossed out of court with growing frequency for any number of reasons -- including for suing the wrong person or having very circumstantial evidence to support their claims.
Is file sharing really copyright infringement?
My own personal view is that the RIAA (and MPAA, by extension) would have the public and courts believe that 'file sharing' is the same as copyright infringement.....and their ongoing public statements over the years continues to strongly-suggest or equate the notion of 'file sharing' with something that is (or should be) a criminal act. It's this belief that has made the entertainment industry so reviled because that "fear of file-sharing" is what's led to things like HDMI, PVP, AACS, DECSS and any number of other technological controls contributing to the creation of a marketplace of barely-interoperable digital entertainment devices and services that increases customer costs and levels of aggravation.
Additionally, ongoing legal woes pertaining to DMCA and the various provisions regarding 'copyright circumvention' --- particularly when DMCA has been used to threaten (and sue) people for reasons that far exceed its original spirit of enactment by Congress -- have raised serious issues about free speech, basic research, and assorted aspects of what constitutes "information" and "knowledge" going back to DMCA's enactment in 1998.
From a more scholarly and legal perspective, Lessig, Littman, Felten, and Granick (attornies all, I think) have written copiously on this topic over the years and would be the ideal starting point for looking at this matter in greater detail. I strongly-endorse any and all of these folks' writings as fantastic primers on these very complex issues at the core of the information society.
-rick
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At the risk of self-promotion, I follow this issue on my blog (http://mistakengoal.com) and in applied research I conduct with fellow university housing and IT professionals (http://resnetsymposium.org/workinggroups/research.htm). In fact, I have been drawn to this group as I have wondered just what my students are doing on the residential computer network, why they're doing it, and why it seems so important to them. I'll leave the legal speculations to the lawyers. But on the congressional front, it's pretty bad news for colleges and universities. First, the copyright holders have successfully convinced American legislators that file-sharing is indeed copyright violation and equivalent to theft. Second, we in the academy have done an exceptionally poor job of making our case and explaining our apparent inaction. I don't need to explain to this group of scholars the many complicated legal, ethical, and technical issues involved but we've barely tried to make those cases with our legislators (academic freedom is derided as a poor excuse by some legislators). Finally, too many institutions have completely underestimated this issue and have been too inactive. The last round of hearings in the House was particularly brutal and demonstrative of their intense displeasure of how institutions have handled this challenge. Today, we discovered that 19 (or 20) institutions are being heavily scrutinized by Congress and placed in the uncomfortable position of answering a lengthy and biased questionnaire or dodging the questions and incurring the wrath of legislators (you can't hide in that small of a group). I don't know if legislative action will occur at the national level but it's clear that there is significant and growing bipartisan willingness to take action. And some of the mumblings (change copyright law to modify safe harbor, perhaps to require particular technological attempts to prevent copyright infringement) should be of interest even to those not in my small world. Kevin
participants (4)
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Alex Randall -
Kevin Guidry -
Michael Zimmer -
Richard Forno