Oski, do you need a loan? Link Music industry sues 477 more computer users, students By TED BRIDIS AP Technology Writer RESOURCES FILE-SWAPPING • 'Clean Slate Program' details - From the RIAA • 'Clean Slate Program' affidavit • Subpoena database - Check if your file-sharing alias is on a subpoena • Defend against RIAA subpoenas - Subpoena Defense Alliance • Avoid being sued - From the Electronic Frontier Foundation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Study on college students, copyright law and file-sharing • Pew Internet study on copyright attitudes • 6/25 RIAA news release on suing file-swappers • Electronic Frontier Foundation -- File-sharing site • Electronic Frontier Foundation -- Copyright archives • U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee -- Digital copyright hearings • U.S. Copyright Office • Recording Industry Association of America • Motion Picture Association of America -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE-SHARING SOFTWARE: • KaZaA • Morpheus • Grokster • Gnutelliums - Other programs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMERCIAL MUSIC DOWNLOADS • MusicMatch Downloads • Napster • Apple iTunes Music Store • BuyMusic.com - Windows only • pressplay • MusicNet • RealOne Rhapsody -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Chronicle Computing columnist Dwight Silverman's columns on digital music issues. WASHINGTON -- The recording industry sued 477 more computer users today, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states -- including Texas A&M University -- accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels, praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and school policies to crack down on music piracy on their computer own networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved to be sued. "There is also a complementary need for enforcement by copyright owners against the serious offenders to remind people that this activity is illegal," said the group's president, Cary Sherman. The recording industry filed its latest complaints against "John Doe" defendants, identifying them only by their numeric Internet protocol addresses. It said lawyers will work through the courts to request subpoenas against the universities and some commercial Internet providers to learn the defendants' names. Campus officials at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania warned students months ago about requests from the recording industry to crack down on copyright infringement on its computer networks. It threatened to unplug the Internet connection for each student identified by the recording industry as illegally sharing music, until the student removed all software used to distribute songs online. "Not everyone agrees that downloading and file-sharing is copyright infringement," wrote the school's technology director, Connie L. Beckman. "While this may be debatable, Mansfield University is required to comply with the law." The latest filings brings the number of lawsuits filed by the recording industry to 2,454 since last summer. None of the cases has yet gone to trial, and 437 people so far have agreed to pay financial penalties of about $3,000 as settlements. The trade group said the newest lawsuits targeted students at Mansfield; Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; Emory University in Atlanta; Georgia Institute of Technology; Gonzaga University of Spokane, Wash.; Michigan State University; Princeton University in New Jersey; Sacred Heart University of Fairfield, Conn.; Texas A&M University; Trinity College of Hartford, Conn.; Trinity University of San Antonio; the University of Kansas; University of Minnesota and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
because the way that they track down people who are sharing the music is by acting like a peer in the p2p network and notating the songs that are shared by each user....once they find someone that is sharing over a certain amount of songs by their clients....then it is childsplay to get the sharer's IP address and determine what part of the country/world and what isp they are using. the only way they could prove you were downloading something is if they(RIAA) offered it up for download and monitored who was downloading from them. Even then...it is dicey at best to prosecute...whos to say the downloader wasnt just checking it out before buyiing...or that they "accidently" downloaded it? The way they think, if they can stop people from sharing the songs...then there wont be any music to download. If you are getting scared of the RIAA...rest assured that there are other ways..p2p is the worst way of getting music ever devised... thankfully for the folks on usenet...p2p keeps the RIAA busy so they dont start going after the newsgroups.
newsgroups got nothing to do with email. newsgroups are a seperate service that you use...alot of the times, your internet account will come with access to a newsgroups server....some of the more serious usenet junkies actually pay a premium newsgroup provider (EasyNews, Giganews, Newsguy, etc..) all you need to use usenet is a internet acount, a newsgroup server to connect to, and a news reader... here is the end all be all of usenet introductions... http://www.xs4all.nl/~houwaart/hulp.htm
read thru the link I provided...once you are setup with a client(news reader) and a usenet provider...then you can browse the list of groups to be subscribed to. this isnt a simple solution...you will have to work a little to set it all up...but once you have it setup...then you just download new headers and get the bodies(files) you want.
There are web services that provide the capability of accessing usenet newsgroups via a web browser. They tend to charge per Gb d/l-ed or so much per month with some Gb limit. You are not out of luck (just out of money if you choose to go this route).
And in addition to what R2K mentioned, my main point is that there's no way for them to know whether or not I've already purchased the CD from which the songs I'm downloading belong. I download a bunch of Incubus MP3's so I can leave the retail CD in their case in good condition (yes I actually have purchased them), and have easy access to my favorite music on my computer. So if they try and Sue me for downloading their stuff I'll just wave my CDs in their face. (And of course, if they were to sue me for stuff I don't actually own yet, I'll run out and buy them and wave THOSE in their face... ) Imagine the Bad Press that will be stirred up if the industry starts trying to get MORE money out of people who have laid down their hard earned cash to actually purchase the stuff they put out!
Why waste time downloading them if you can easily rip them from the CD directly(assuring consistent quality too)?
That works too, I did that with a couple of my CDs, except they were in WMA from Windows Media Player ripping them, never bothered to go get a real ripping program to make MP3s, just never had enough problems downloading (aside from the occasional dummy file) and I can generally get speeds fast enough that I don't feel like I'm really wastin' too much time.
Downloading is not illegal. According to copyright law, it is illegal to copy a cd and distribute it. So only the "sharers" could be sued. The question becomes, is "sharing" distributing? If I have copyrighted files on my computer and someone on Kazaa downloads them from me am I really distributing it? I'm not really GIVING them the file. They are TAKING the file from me. This is the debatable point. The current copyright laws couldn't account for the computer and internet boom. So this is a very VERY grey area as to if file sharing is illegal.
I stopped downloading music a while ago, but i also stopped buying any CDs from major labels, it has worked for me because i like punk music, but it wont work for everyone, there are a bunch of bands out there that are under small labels like kung fu records or Fat Wrech Chords, but like i said, you have to like punk or punk pop whatever you want to call it. i no longer listen to bands like Creed or Puddle of Mudd, the most commercial band I listen to now is Sum 41. But there are a bunch of good punk bands under small labels that are great, NOFX and the Vandals are some of the oldest but they sound so good, I don't need no freaking downloads, and I don't need no freaking big labels.
