p2pnet - rss feed: Give IDs to RIAA, UW-Madison told
p2pnet.net news:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA tried to order the University of Wisconsin-Madison to act as a Big 4 enforcer by sending extortion letters to students.
The university refused and now a federal judge has ordered it to hand over the names of 53 students, “accused of music piracy,” says The Capital Times.
There’s no such criminal or civil offence as “music piracy,” or anything remotely like it. At worst, copyright infringement might have occurred, but the RIAA has been able to use the mainstream media to spin this purely commercial transgression into a major crime on a par with rape or murder.
“U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ordered the university Wednesday to release the names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and Media Access Control addresses associated with each of the Internet connections,” says the story. “The RIAA is likely to use the names and addresses to send settlement letters to students before it tries to proceed with a lawsuit.”
North Carolina State director of student legal services Pam Gerace, “is fighting the lawsuits for her student clients,” said Josh Harrell in the NCS Technician Online.
“She also confirms a strong suspicion p2pnet has voiced several times,” we said, ie, “that students who freely giving the RIAA their names at this point could be leaving themselves open for RIAA attacks of some kind at a later”.
The RIAA is running a student self-incrimination site under which it offers not to sue if potential victims pay $3,000.
Gerace, “advises that the students should remain anonymous,” says Harrell. “The RIAA actually said they might have use for the names in the future.”
This, “could prove dangerous for the students, as the RIAA could pursue other legal actions or give the names to record companies,” she said.
The Capital Times has Ken Frazier, interim cto at UW-Madison, saying it may not be possible to link each of the 53 Internet connections to an individual and indeed, although the RIAA is at pains to give the impression that IP addresses lead directly to people, IP addies are no more than links to computers which can be used by anyone with access to them. And if unprotected Wi-fi is involved, they can be secretly taped from outside.
“Students share Internet ports and computers, and some IP addresses may lead to common areas such as labs,” said Frazier in the story.
Starting today, Ohio University, “will begin monitoring its network for P2P file sharing activity and disabling Internet access for computers found in violation of the new policy,” says an OU notice.
Also See:
extortion letters - 4th school says NO! to the RIAA, April 16, 2007
The Capital Times - Student Ids Ordered In Piracy Case, April 26, 2007
Technician Online - RIAA files 23 lawsuits against NCSU, April 13, 20057
self-incrimination site - RIAA college settlement plan, February 28, 2007
begin monitoring - Ohio University caves in to RIAA, April 26, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by governBryan Adams slams Net radio hikement restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I would inform Judge Shabaz of a small number of things. That he is under an impression that (the) RIAA has a case, and that he (Judge Shabaz) knows not of what he speaks (orders, on this occasion). Then, in the spirit if the above, I would tell Judge Shabaz that he can “go ’screw’”.
And wait for the inevitable juggernaut. Shabaz is freely making himself a tool of those who insert brass rings thru the noses of those with public power, then drag them around, and he is doing (even if unconsciously) their will.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
after all of the failed lawsuits with people living in houses, imagine it going to court when they have an entire DORM OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Your honor, I have six people in my room alone and three of them are experienced with computers, any one of them could have downloaded it, or one of their friends could have downloaded it. I used the computer for writing my essays FOR CLASSES.
::wink wink::
April 28th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
APPEAL!
APPEAL!
APPEAL!
September 7th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Doesn’t that violate the FERPA law preventing any access to student data (personal information)? Especially since NO LAW HAS BEEN BROKEN and nothing has happened to cause a court trial…this DINGBAT judge needs to have his head examined, plus needs to be investigated for ethics violations in conneciton with getting kickbacks from the RIAA since there is no legal basis for doing this. Sheesh. I hope the university is successful in fighting those idiots. But if they DO release the personal info, I smell a FERPA-violation lawsuit against the university…
Also, someone needs to track the locations where the RIAA focuses on, and see if they stop sending letters in the areas of the country that have successfully countered them. If they stop sending to those universities and those areas, then that is ammunition to use in a defense: “Your honor, notice how there are NO MORE alleged copyright violations in all of these areas, which JUST HAPPEN to be the exact areas that have successfully fought back against the RIAA. Hmmm…”