p2pnet.net reports that the RIAA has sent 405 more blackmail letters, adding to its hitlist an additional 23 universities, including Boston University (50 pre-litigation settlement letters), Columbia University (20), Dartmouth College (11), DePaul University (18), Drexel University (20), Ferris State University (17), Ithaca College(20), Purdue University (38), University of California - Berkeley (19), University of California - Los Angeles (21), University of California - Santa Cruz (17), University of Maine system (27), University of Nebraska - Lincoln (25), University of Wisconsin system (66, including the following individual campuses: Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Parkside, Platteville, Stevens Point, Stout, and Whitewater), Vanderbilt University (20), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (16). This follows on the heels of the offensive it launched last month targeting 400 students at 13 institutions.
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Keywords: digital copyright online download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs
6 comments:
Well beside the fact I'm not convinced there is a real plan behind the actions, I would say they want the terror compain to not loose ground. In the light of the cases that have been making progress they don't want people to feel the war is over or something.
I think there is a plan. I think the letter to the ISP's and the letter to the colleges, both promoting the
"early settlement" plan, are attempts to increase the settlement revenue and decrease the legal fees, thus increasing their cash flow.
I think it's a sign that their present strategy is no longer working for them.
(Hmmm, I wonder why it's not working. Could it be that (a) their cases are frivolous, (b) people are starting to fight back, and (c) when people fight back against frivolous cases strange and unprofitable things start happening to the plaintiffs)
Thought I would add this to the comments as I just found it this morning.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/22/u_of_nebraska_to_ria.html
As per the copy/pasted address above this is used from boinbboing.net (all comments are that of the author at boingboing):
[b]U of Nebraska to RIAA: here's a bill for the time you're wasting[/b]
The University of Nebraska is so pissed off with the RIAA's outrageous requests to help rat out students who file-share that it has sent the RIAA a bill for the time the University has wasted dealing with the RIAA's demands. Go Corn Huskers!
Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska has told the RIAA that it can't help them identify many of the students accused of file trading. The school's system changes a computer's IP address each time its turned on, and it only keeps this information for month. After that month, the school has no way of associating an IP address with a computer or its user. The RIAA is angry about this, and a spokesman for the group criticized the university for not understanding "the need to retain these records". This is a ridiculous complaint. The university doesn't have a need to retain these records, and there's no reason it should do so out of some obligation to the RIAA. If there were any doubt that the university is really irritated by the RIAA's requests, it has requested that the RIAA pay the university to reimburse its expenses from dealing with this (good luck with that).
In the software biz, we would say that their previous approach was not scalable. In other words, the new approach greatly increases the number of people they can target.
Consider this point of view from a Wedding dj:
The RIAA is a racist organization who only sues white people. Hmmm North Dakota Not Gary Indiana, Trenton NJ, Compton, but FARGO NORTH DAKOTA?
But nobody has the guts to fight them on those terms.
Tons of black people selling illegal dvd's or hard drives full of music, on ebay and craigslist, yet they never get sued its only white 13 years olds or white college kids, being sued. Because, White people buy most of the rap and hip hop music, and if we let white people steal music like the blacks the whole rap hip hop market would collapse.
Plus, I DARE YOU, just try and get a breakdown of the lawsuits by race, age, settlement amount and ZIP CODE....the RIAA will not supply that information..WHY? Everybody else has to to show transparency in employment and corporate policy..and if they don't they get sued.....but not the RIAA???
Jesse Jackson sued Toyota, because of "Implied Racism", well what about turning this around and implying the RIAA will not sue black people.
I was a Professional Wedding dj, and was active in my local dj association, and i know very very few black dj's are "legal" I know its very politically incorrect to say this but it is the best defense against the apparent reverse racism in these lawsuits.
Richard Allen
New York City
I'm not sure why I'm feeding this troll, but this is just silly. They being their lawsuit identifying what they believe to be infringing IP addresses. They have no idea who is sitting at the computer (in fact, I think it's safe to assume they don't know throughout the entire lawsuit). See Ray's article on "How the RIAA Litigation Process Works".
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