Tuesday, August 21, 2007

RIAA Targets 503 New Students at 58 Colleges & Universities; Continues to Avoid Tangling with Harvard

Accorting to ZeroPaid.com, the RIAA has targeted 503 additional college students at 58 colleges and universities. We note that Harvard is not among them.

503 "lucky" new students get to start the Fall Semester even deeper in debt.

The RIAA has announced that it has targeted 503 new students in its latest "deterrence program" aimed at eliminating college campus piracy across the country. This brings the approximate number of targeted students to 2,926 and counting thus far.......

In the seventh wave of this new initiative, the RIAA this week sent letters to 58 schools including:


* Boston University

* University of Tennessee - Knoxville

* North Carolina State University

* Duke University, University of Maine System,

* Columbia University

* University of California, Los Angeles

* University of Texas at Austin

* Boston College

* Carleton College

* Georgetown University

* Indiana State University

* Marshall University

* New York University

* Tulane University

* University of Virginia

* Bethel University

* California State University, Fresno

* California State University, Sacramento

* Colgate University

* Emory University

* Loyola University Chicago

* University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

* University of Illinois at Chicago

* University of Mississippi

* Allegheny College

* Gettysburg College

* Lehigh University

* Seton Hall University

* University of Kentucky

* Washington University

* Bryn Mawr College

* Bucknell University

* California State University, Chico

* Creighton University

* Florida Institute of Technology

* Indiana University of Pennsylvania

* Rice University

* Texas A&M University

* University of Florida

* University of Notre Dame

* Bowdoin College

* Haverford College

* Mt. Saint Mary College

* Pepperdine University

* San Jose State University

* Smith College

* Trinity College

* University of Minnesota - Duluth

* American University

* California State University, Stanislaus

* San Diego State University

* University of Hawaii

* Villanova University

* Oberlin College

* Swarthmore College

* Virginia Military Institute

* Wellesley College.
Complete article


Commentary & discussion:

US News & World Report




Keywords: digital copyright online law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs




8 comments:

AMD FanBoi said...

Maybe some Harvard Law students would like to do some pro bono advising to the other affected students and universities. Good practice for them while they retain their idealism.

As for the universities, what I've seen too much of on their part is "This isn't our problem, so how do we get out of the middle of it as expeditiously as possible?" This is completely contrary to what the universities should be espousing, which is, "How do we prevent bogus lawsuits from intruding on our student's right to privacy?"

This has been the strength of the RIAA attack. They attack non-parties (e.g. ISP's and universities) first. Of course, no one wants to be part of any legal proceeding for a second longer than necessary (excluding lawyers who essentially bill by the quarter hour, if not the minute), so any non-party would rather roll-over than fight a fight that's not their own fight. Verizon was a rare exception here.

Because of this, the RIAA faces little opposition in the beginning, when they're at their weakest point. This is the same point were the real parties to the suit are prevented from fighting due to the ex parte nature of the proceedings, and the lack of direct subpoenas to the actual parties.

This is a dirty trick, and it's disgusting that the RIAA has been allowed to get away with it for so long.

As for the RIAA quoting this blog, I would sincerely hope that any judge so presented with such a citation would view the comments portion of the blog as expressing personal opinions of outrage at the RIAA's behavior that don't reflect on the lawyer(s) who maintain such blogs, and that any articles cited in the blog are the responsibility of the author of said articles.

To claim otherwise, or that shining some sunlight onto the flawed methods and procedures employed by the RIAA and its agents, is harmful to justice is an outright lie!

My comments are Copyright(c) 2007 to myself, and not licensed for any use outside this blog itself without my express written permission. They are specifically not licensed FOR ANY USE by the RIAA, any affiliated record company to the RIAA, or by the Plaintiff's of any lawsuits regarding P2P Media Distribution System filesharing, downloading, uploading, distribution rights, or "making available" lawsuits!

Itsmee said...

Ray & Team,

I feel very strongly about the issues surrounding the RIAA and copyright reform. I have been following your blog and the various headlines floating around the web. It seems the RIAA uses some very questionable tactics and I really appreciate people who take a stand against this.

I just wanted to say thank you. And keep on fighting the good fight.

I also want to say I am more than happy to pay a reasonable price for music. But when the record labels begin selling music online through channels such as Itunes, and refuse to pass on any savings from physical distribution they gain from digital music distribution, I will not pay. The price of digital music is not a free market price, its fixed. Again more shady tactics used by the RIAA and recording industry to hold on to their massive profit margins.

If songs were 10-20 cents each, which i think is more than reasonable, I would be buying even more music due to the convenience and I would be one happy camper.

Again thankyou for your noble cause and I wish you luck with the Warner vs. Cassin case next month!

-Malcolm Lowry
IT Consultant/Web Designer

P.S. Save Internet Radio!!!!!!

raybeckerman said...

It's the RIAA who are trying to "reform" the copyright law.

Itsmee said...

Ray,

Yes, to their advantage of course. I think the copyright system is long overdue for an overhaul, but I'm worried the lobbying power of corporations will outweigh the advantages of sharing information freely.

Who knows will be interesting to see. Is it possible to get a camera in the courtroom for your upcoming trial? I would love to see how it goes if thats at all possible. Plus would be good to virally distribute information from the trial via youtube and such sites.

What are the restrictions on this?

Alter_Fritz said...

malcolm, IIRC it's not a trial, but "only" an (important) hearing regarding a motion to dismiss the suit.

RIAA fears real trials with a real jury like the devil fears holy water.

They clog with their boilerplate suits the courts just as long as they could; without risking that a case advances to an actual trial day, just to dismiss at the last possible moment.
And then they complain in their distorted perception of reality that the bad, bad defendant refused to let them drop the case early on even before defendant has answered the allegations or without any costs for defendants.
Smart judge(s) already noted in their orders that these kind of Label-lawyers statements are "not true".

But having some Audio/Video of RIAA-Richard and his infamous drug trafficking analogies to mash with some non label creative commons songs sounds tempting ;-)

Unknown said...

They (riaa) are avoiding Harvard? Any particular reason why?

raybeckerman said...

pepper, are you kidding, or are you new here?

StephenH said...

I feel that the RIAA should stop this ASAP. I feel that these students should start a class action back, challenging their investigation practices, similar to what Tanya Andersen did (i.e. file counterclaims to their john doe suit).