Saturday, June 23, 2007

Suggestions to College Students Being Targeted by the RIAA.

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. HOWEVER, I DO ADVISE YOU TO GET LEGAL ADVICE, AND NOT TO TAKE YOUR ADVICE FROM THE RIAA, THE MPAA, YOUR SCHOOL, OR ANYONE ELSE WHO IS NOT YOUR LAWYER.

These are my suggestions to college students being targeted by the RIAA:

1. Join together with other students who are being targeted, pool your financial resources, and hire an attorney who is ready, willing, and able to (a) advise you of your rights and (b) fight the RIAA's "John Doe" cases when they are brought.

2. Bring to your college or university's attention my "Open Letter to Colleges and Universities"

3. Join or start campus charters of Digital Freedom and/or FreeCulture.

4. Remember that the RIAA does not presently have your identity, and that by calling them or visiting their web site you may be giving them your identity.

5. Read and learn about your rights. E.g., review Electronic Frontier Foundation page, RIAA v. the Students: An FAQ for "Pre-Lawsuit" Letter Targets

6. Organize.

7. Organize.

8. Organize.

-R.B.

Link to printable version of these suggesions.

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

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3 comments:

AMD FanBoi said...

And find out what your schools data retention policy is. If it's unreasonably long, push to have it shortened to just meet the needs of the school itself. There is no reason for your University to keep IP logs longer than they need them themselves. Remind them that they're not in the business of being a cop for anyone else. They should have to justify keeping this information on you for whatever period of time they're keeping it.

Try this, and you may find out that the RIAA is just blowing smoke. That fact that your school could still identify you when the RIAA letters arrived doesn't mean it can when the subpoena's follow.

And if the RIAA decides to treat some schools differently than others based on record retention policy (remember, the RIAA wants these records kept FOREVER, and available to them any time they decide to request them), that should be yet another major PR blunder for them in the making.

Anonymous said...

A couple of questions. I have received a pre-suit letter. My school IT department has a block of time that includes the time/date stamp on Exhibit A which links the IP address with my computer's MAC address, but they stress the data is for system troubleshooting, and that they can not say for certain that my computer was at that IP address at the exact time the information was gathered.

Second, I can prove I was not at school, and therefore nowhere near my computer from the day before to two days after the RIAA got their information. Does this fact help me in any way? Do I have to have been physically near my computer at that time for them to sue me?

raybeckerman said...

Dear david,

I repeat:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. HOWEVER, I DO ADVISE YOU TO GET LEGAL ADVICE, AND NOT TO TAKE YOUR ADVICE FROM THE RIAA, THE MPAA, YOUR SCHOOL, OR ANYONE ELSE WHO IS NOT YOUR LAWYER.