p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Here’s an interesting study in contrasts.

In Maine, Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki from the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic are going flat out to officially represent two students who are being victimised by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA through a ‘pre-settlement’ extortion scheme by which they given the options of paying the RIAA $3,000, or more, or risk a possible civil court case.

Ames and Chmelecki are being guided by clinic director and U of M associate professor Deirdre Smith.

Maine said, We’ll Help, but the legal clinic at New York’s Binghampton University categorically advised Nicole Russo, a BU senior, to pay up because, “it costs $400 an hour to retain an RIAA attorney to take the case to court,” says the Pipe Dream, going on.

“I feel like they came in and robbed me blind,” story has Russo saying.

“I had no chance at winning this case because the RIAA has unlimited funds to go to court where I do not. They target students for this reason, the RIAA knows students won’t fight it further and would prefer to make it go away quietly.”

Adds the Pipe Dream.

Due to the severity of the issue, BU continues to educate students on the possible consequences of file sharing.

“Our educational program continues, which includes distributing informational brochures to new and returning students. In addition, an ad was run in Pipe Dream last semester and we’re looking into doing the same this semester,” said Gail Glover, a BU spokeswoman.

Russo, who has decided to accept the settlement price, is an Educational Opportunity Program student and attends BU through grants and loans. She says she has no way to pay off the settlement.

“What makes me really angry is the $4,000 collected from me doesn’t go to the artist at all, it just gets recirculated to sue en masse more people like me,” she said.

In Oregon, state attorney general Hardy Myers has come out firmly on the side of the University of Oregon, telling the Big 4 to either put up or shut up.

Today, something like 5,000 students have been threatened in this way but as far as we know, not one of them has yet seen a judge or a jury.

[The pic on the right is a clip from an original photograph by Ryan Lafollette, Pipe Dream managing editor]

Slashdot it!

Also See:

C‘pre-settlement’ extortion scheme - Maine law students vs the RIAA, December 28, 2007
Pipe Dream - RIAA suing SUNY student, January 28, 2008
come out firmly - RIAA may be spying on students: Oregon AG, November 29, 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.php

---

Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

HOME

Viewed 4364 times