Ohio University pays RIAA ‘expert’
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- My earlier story on the Ohio University / RIAA fiasco didn’t go far enough.
In it, I quoted the university’s The Post as saying OU had paid out almost $100,000 in anti-P2P software – $75,000, to be precise – in a bid to make Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) members of the Big 4 organised music cartel leave the school and studens alone.
I should have looked a little further because the $75K isn’t everything.
Ohio University is also paying Dr Doug Jacobson’s company $16,000 a year in “maintenance” and Lo! – “suddenly RIAA letters stop!” – as Ray Beckerman points out in Recording Industry vs The People.
Jacobson was hired by the RIAA to provide expert testimony in a case in which the Big 4 gain is trying to paint Marie Lindor, a 57-year-old New York woman who knows as much about computers as she does about flying a 747, as a massive online distributor of copyrighted music.
However, instead of shoring up the RIAA’s fictional claims, Jacobson (right) has become a(nother) serious embarrassment.
Says The Post:
Today, the university uses a nearly $60,000 software and hardware package from Audible Magic to stop file sharing on its network and pays about $16,000 for support, maintenance and regular database updates that allow the system, called CopySense, to detect newly released music.
Audible Magic’s Copysense nonsense was, and probably still is, a favourite of RIAA spinster Mitch Bainwol who spent many days touting it around Congress to the extent some people were wondering if the RIAA had shares in the company.
The so-called filtering software was also meticulously analysed by the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Chris Palmer and found seriously wanting.
The Post article goes on:
The RIAA is still sending DMCA notices, but has received more attention for its monthly waves of about 400 pre-litigation settlement letters, which allege that computers on college campuses nationwide are sharing music. Those letters demanded recipients pay an average of $3,500 to settle a potential copyright infringement lawsuit by multiple record companies.
OU received 100 such letters by mid-April, but has received none since it began using CopySense.
Definitely stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Beckerman is looking for help in further decimating Jacobson’s ‘evidence’.
(Thanks, Ray)
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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November 1st, 2007 at 9:20 am
How is this NOT viewed as a ‘Protection’ payoff ??