College students being sued

[Cascadia]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18644781/wid/11915829?GT1=9951

There are hundreds of college students that are being sued over downloading music from the internet rather than paying for the CDs from a store. The ones that are being caught are the ones that are using the university online system to download the music. But what about the college students that do not use the university system and download music, how would they get caught?

This is occurring at more than 60 college campuses across the country who have received letters from the recording industry group, threatening a lawsuit if they don't settle out of court.

"Any student on any campus in the country who is illegally downloading music may receive one of these letters in the coming months," said Jenni Engebretsen, an RIAA spokeswoman. Pay $3,000 — $7.87 per song. I would rather go get the CD than get involved with this.

[Ecto Jedi]

Absolutely disgusting. Of all the people to go after, they target the poor, debt-drowned college students who are trying to make a go of it despite the insane tuition and residence rates. It's damn travesty, is what it is.




---EDIT

Same deal, different organization. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9896986/)

I'm curious as to why the top execs think pursuing illegal music and video downloading in this manner will tide public perception in their favour? Stories like these will only make the tech-savvy population angrier.

[Mr._Mutant_Man]

So just telling them to stop isn't enough? I'm sure if they were threatened with something like that they'd invest in iTunes.

I can see the RIAA's point at times, but other times they seem like complete jerks. The emulation deal is one thing. Protect Nintendo's games, that's fine, because with the virtual system they are continuing to profit from it. But what about old arcade games and things where licenses have lapsed and so forth and won't be made available? No one is going to profit from it, I don't feel there is a need to enforce every last title.

[iris]

Absolutely disgusting. Of all the people to go after, they target the poor, debt-drowned college students who are trying to make a go of it despite the insane tuition and residence rates. It's damn travesty, is what it is.
I kind of agree, but at the same time it's really stupid of these students to do that over the University system. That's like doing illegal stuff using your work email address that goes through the company server. I'm on my University system right now and even though I don't do what those kids are doing, I'm still cautious about what I do over the University system, which is owned by the state government. It's just common sense.

[Mecha Cow]

BUT GUYS DON'T YOU SEE THIS IS RUINING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Do these people seriously have nothing more important to worry about?

[Sewer Bull]

I wonder why RIAA prefers to threaten a lawsuit against people randomly tracked down on the net rather than trying to shut down the p2p networks permanently.

Closing down the source of all sin just should do it.

[Roseangelo]

I wonder why RIAA prefers to threaten a lawsuit against people randomly tracked down on the net rather than trying to shut down the p2p networks permanently.

Closing down the source of all sin just should do it.

I think they've tried that, but they have no legal grounds to do so because none of the files are hosted by the networks. And most of them are operated out of other countries with different copyright laws and/or law enforcement that could give a crap.

[愛]

The real problem is most of the illegal music distribution is now done through BitTorrent, and because BT works on individual people sharing files, they would have to hunt down everyone individually. It would basically be doing the same as pinpointing random people and suing them.

Musicians make more money doing live shows and other promotions, anyway.

[iris]

Musicians make more money doing live shows and other promotions, anyway.

Yep... true for the majority of musicians. Unless they have no clue what they're doing.

We're not talking about musicians; we're talking about RIAA... which basically means wer're talking about companies... and many of them are huge companies with lots of lawyers and hi-profile contractees. Not that I think taking their music without paying is ethical; it's clearly not, and it's clearly problematic, especially to the mid-sized companies and the smaller companies that want to grow. Ripping music does cut into the profit margin, and that leads to fewer jobs in the industry. :p But since this can't really be regulated without draconian measures, it's up to them to redevelop their business models. Lawsuits will mainly serve to make people hate them.

[Revan]

Wow they are really going crazy with this whole thing. It's inevitable with the size of the internet that illegal sharing is going to happen. It's only going to get worse

[Rooish]

Yeah ... I have little sympathy for record companies, considering the frightening profit they make off other people's work, and the control they have over the musicians' style. I think that suing people for downloading is misguided, as well. I wouldn't buy many CDs even if I didn't download music--I'd probably burn CDs from my friends if they had them. Or I'd never learn about specific musicians at all. Thanks to dowloading I am aware of more musicians, and this awareness helps sell concert tickets (which provide more money for the actual musicians).

That's why I don't really mind people bootlegging movies, either. The movies are such crappy quality that anyone who would download them probably is only mildly interested, and wouldn't go see them in the theatre. If they really like the movie, though, they may actually want to buy merchandise. At the very least they will tell their friends how awesome it was and they might go see it.

That all being said, I know it's unethical.

[Deathknight]

Downloading music illegally is just not going to stop. Even if you shutdown the P2P networks there are still plenty of ways to get music. As mentioned before there's bittorrent, there's also IRC, and even some websites have music for direct download. I really understand that it hurts them with all the downloading but there's not much they can do. However, I don't think sueing is the answer.

[RaphistheBest]

Sueing random people isn't going to solve anything. These companies just want to make money by targeting poor college students that will more than likely settle because they know that they would probably spend the rest of their natural lives trying to pay back whatever crazy ass amount the court tells them to pay back whenever they lose in court. Poor college students can't afford the kind of lawyers these companies have. I know someone that was threatened to be sued like crazy and he's got two jobs as it is, along with his wife, to raise their three kids. This is just bullsh*t.

[Cascadia]

Downloading music and movies...I am sorry is illegal. By downloading music and movies from the Internet, you are risking problems with copyright issues. I know that DVDs and CDs are expensive but it is legal in this manner. Now if they were in Canada, they would have been alright. In Canada, for example, downloading copyright music from peer-to-peer networks is legal, but uploading those files is not. But what is interesting is the following statement...The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act is much more strict and deems copying of copyrighted music (with the exception of making a copy for your own use) as illegal.

According to the court's ruling in The Recording Industry Association of America v. Verizon Internet Services (2003), entertainment companies have the right to get an individual's name, address and phone number if they have evidence he or she is using the Internet to get or pass on their copyrighted works. They can then use this information to pursue legal action against those who download or upload the illegally obtained music files.

One of the big issues concerning the music industry is, of course, the revenue loss.