Another MIT student defies RIAA
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A second MIT student has decided s/he’s not prepared to cave in to extortion on the part of the Big 4’s RIAA.
Vanderbilt University’s Cindy Frank believes ‘playing nice‘ with Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA is the way go, reported p2net last December, going on:
“And the policy has so far cost the university [read taxpayers and state and federal authorities, not to mention parents] half a million dollars.
“But Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science major Erek Speed doesn’t agree.”
In fact, it’s time to fight back, he said in Tech Online.
“Even if the RIAA was really the poor victim it claims to be, MIT probably should not be so quick to fall into its role as RIAA lapdog. The reason pre-litigation letters are sent is because real lawsuits are expensive. It is not an act of clemency or a new well of kindness suddenly sprung up in the previously evil RIAA.
But nowhere in MIT’s charter, “does it demand the safeguarding of corporate coffers,” said Speed, also stating:
“It might be a stretch but I think it is more true to our charter that MIT take a stance that opposes anything the RIAA does to stifle the free flow of information and should only cooperate where legally mandated.”
‘All have paid the pre-litigation settlement ‘
A new Tech Online story says 19 “members of the MIT community” have been, “asked by the recording industry to preemptively settle lawsuits for allegedly downloading music illegally on peer-to-peer networks,” referring to the RIAA’s proud January 10 announcement that it was expecting a further eighteen US teaching institutions to act as corporate copyright cops, paid for out of the pockets of US taxpayers and parents.
“One MIT student who has received a letter from the RIAA said last week that he planned not to settle and that he would fight the RIAA’s attempts to learn his identity,” it says, going on:
“To date, no MIT students are known to have gone to court – all have paid the pre-litigation settlement or have settled after the RIAA has sent a subpoena to MIT.
“The RIAA identified alleged infringers by looking at their IP addresses. Since the RIAA cannot obtain the names of people connected with the IP addresses without a court order, it instead sent its demand letters directly to MIT and requested that the Institute forward the letters to the community members.
“MIT complied with the RIAA’s request and has forwarded the letters to the computer users corresponding to those addresses.”
‘We are very sorry …’
Nor is MIT alone in this. Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, another of the schools on the January 10 RIAA list, did the same.
“We are very sorry, but the College is not able to provide any legal advice on how to proceed,”.says a post on the school’s website.
“That is up to you.”
But, “An MIT student who said he received a demand letter contacted The Tech last week and said he plans to decline an early settlement and to fight the RIAA’s subpoena,” says the post, continuing:
He requested anonymity because he wants to keep his identity from the RIAA.
The student, who said he was “the victim of a fishing expedition by the RIAA,” said he did not want to settle because settlement would not prevent further legal action by the individual record labels the RIAA represents.
“I’m disappointed that MIT isn’t going to step up,” the student said. Other schools like Boston University and the University of Oregon have resisted RIAA subpoenas of student records more actively than MIT has, he said. Two BU computer science professors, Azer Bestavros and Jesse R. Stengel, gave sworn statements in July 2007 asking the Massachusetts federal district court to quash subpoenas that sought to identify BU community members. The University of Oregon in November 2007 asked the Oregon federal district court to quash a similar subpoena.
The MIT student wants to, “challenge the subpoenas by collaborating with other MIT students who have received letters, but he has been unable to find the names of the other recipients because those records are considered confidential by MIT,” says The Tech Online, adding:
“In an Oct. 4 statement, Dean for Student Life Larry G. Benedict and Jerrold M. Grochow ‘68, vice president for Information Services & Technology, said, “Unauthorized downloading and sharing of copyrighted files is illegal, contrary to MIT policy, and a serious matter with potentially damaging consequences. MIT strongly discourages such unauthorized downloading and sharing of computer files.”
In addition to the RIAA, “many other content owners, including the Motion Picture Association of America, send takedown notices under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) for videos, movies, games, and software,” says Copyright at MIT.
Takedown notices ask to remove or disable access to infringing files from the Internet. Students who do infringe copyright should reconsider that activity in light of the pervasive monitoring of file sharing that content owners do on the Internet.
Larry Benedict
Dean for Student Life
Jerrold M. Grochow
Vice President for Information Services & Technology
Harvard and other universities to which the RIAA sent pre-litigation notices, “ought to take strong, direct action” and “tell the RIAA to take a hike,” said Charles Nesson, William F. Weld professor of law, Harvard Law School, and founder and faculty co-director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society; and John Palfrey, clinical professor of law and executive director, the Berkman Center.
They went on:
This Spring, 1,200 pre-litigation letters arrived unannounced at universities across the country. The RIAA promises more will follow. These letters tell the university which students the RIAA plans on suing, identifying the students only by their IP addresses, the ‘license plates’ of Internet connections. Because the RIAA does not know the names behind the IP addresses, the letters ask the universities to deliver the notices to the proper students, rather than relying upon the ordinary legal mechanisms.
Universities should have no part in this extraordinary process.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
playing nice – Vanderbilt ‘plays nice’ with the RIAA, December 5, 2007
doesn’t agree – Fight the RIAA! MIT student, December 7, 2007
Tech Online – Appeasing the RIAA Is Getting Us Nowhere, December 7, 2007
Tech Online – RIAA Sends Institute 19 Settlement Letters, January 23, 2008
January 10 – RIAA attacks another 18 US schools, January 14, 2008
another of the schools – Mount Holyoke abandons students to RIAA, January 23, 2008
tell the RIAA to take a hike – RIAA student victimisation campaign, July 21, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe
to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.phpNet access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
It seems clear that MIT is failing no only to act wth its students best wishes in mind but is revealing their own moral weakenss in not being able to resolve the situation in such a way as to ensure that the rights of those innocently being extorted are protected, so much for wishing to retain any respect from students and onlookers in the future when its also clear they are taking an active participation in a commercial extortion racket.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:23 am
All those that paid the presettlement are a pack of coward.
The university administrators that cave to the RIAA demands are a pack of couard too!
Nobody never teach them to never negotiate or settle with terrorists?
The only way to deal with terrorists is to kill them. Same for the RIAA.
DO NOT PAID DO NOT PAID DO NOT PAID AND DO NOT PAID!
You have no asset you have nothing to lose folk!
and of course: BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT! AND BOYCOTT until there is nothing left of these parasites.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
The best thing would have been to first use a legitimate sourse like iTunes or Napster, or Rhapsody ect. There is no excuse for P2P mis use!
January 24th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Stop trolling, you self-righteous bigot.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
” Stop trolling, you self-righteous bigot. ”
He will stop until monday.
He’s paid to do it, monday through friday.