p2pnet news | RIAA News:- I posted the first RIAA school report at the beginning of the year —- in February, 2008, to be exact.

I’ve been meaning to update it and I’ve finally gotten around to it.

First time, I included the beginning of 2008 in the post. However, I’ve now made a new section, meaning 2007 stands alone and 2008 to date is a new post, up to June 30, 2008.

Cheers!

Jon Newton - p2pnet

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Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, started targeting schools and students across America as a major element in their move to force ‘consumers’ to buy what they’re told to buy —- corporate ‘content,’ as the Big 4 call their formulaic outpourings.

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, the root problem is not the artists, the fans or even new Internet technology,” wrote The Eagles’ Don Henley in a Washington Post OpEd not last week, but four years ago this month.

The problem, he said, is the music industry itself. “It’s systemic,” he stated, going on >>>

The industry, which was once composed of hundreds of big and small record labels, is now controlled by just a handful of unregulated, multinational corporations determined to continue their mad rush toward further consolidation and merger. Sony and BMG announced their agreement to merge in November, and EMI and Time Warner may not be far behind.

The industry may soon be dominated by only three multinational corporations. The executives who run these corporations believe that music is solely a commodity. Unlike their predecessors, they fail to recognize that music is as much a vital art form and social barometer as it is a way to make a profit.

At one time artists actually developed meaningful, even if strained, relationships with their record labels.

This was possible because labels were relatively small and accessible, and they had an incentive to join with the artists in marketing their music. Today such a relationship is practically impossible for most artists.

Labels no longer take risks by signing unique and important new artists, nor do they become partners with artists in the creation and promotion of the music. After the music is created, the artist’s connection with it is minimized and in some instances is nonexistent.

In their world, music is generic. A major record label president confirmed this recently when he referred to artists as “content providers.” Would a major label sign Johnny Cash today? I doubt it.

So music is no longer cultural, something to be enjoyed. It’s a hard-core commodity to be peddled as ruthlessly as any washing machine and the grotesquely powerful corporations which control the ‘industry’ will stop at nothing to make sure their product, and only their product, is dominant and distributed solely by companies and methods nominated and/or controlled by them.

They don’t answer to music lovers; they answer to their shareholders. And they know the key to future sales lies in reaching and indoctrinating the customers of tomorrow.

Their systematic penetration of junior school classrooms and organisations including, unbelievably, the world scouting movement, is successfully in hand. Some scout leaders offer IP ‘merit’ badges, and spurious ‘educational messages’ are today routinely delivered by teachers who’ve been persuaded intellectual property and copyright law is something every child should learn, along with the three R’s.

The contention is ridiculous but it’s actively promoted by governments in North America, Europe and Asia. Developing nations with their desperate need for resources will be easy meat.

Meanwhile, the Big 4 have decided it’s the turn of older kids and where’s the best place to get at them? In the classrooms.

All the action is for the moment in America. But as soon as the principle is established —- and that’s well on the way to happening —- it’ll be the turn of the rest of the world.

In the US, with Graham Spanier (left) at the helm and RIAA president Cary ‘Tough Love‘ Sherman (right) locked in firmly, Penn State was the first senior US school to be corrupted.

Today, it’s accepted as given that American colleges and universities will be bombarded with RIAA extortion letters delivered by school staffs, with students living under constant threat of court action unless they buy corporate ‘music product’.

This reign of terror against students —- it’s nothing less —- is not only sanctioned, but encouraged by teachers and administrators who, like their counterparts in the junior schools, have been browbeaten into believing acting for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG is in the interests of their students.

And of course, these activities are funded by taxpayers, school fees and parents.

It’s win-win for the labels, who are laughing all the way to the bank.

Below, in date order, is a selection of p2pnet school posts going back to February 13, 2007, with clips at the beginning to give an idea of content.

They’re by no means comprehensive, nor have I included every post on the subject.

But maybe seeing them all in one place will give an idea of just how widespread this terrible and ongoing corruption of American schools by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG and their RIAA is.

Cheers!
Jon Newton - p2pnet

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2007

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RIAA ‘extortion’ letter to ISPs
February 13th, 2007p2pnet.net news:- The RIAA is launching its own p2p site. But not because it’s owners, Warner Music (US), EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), have suddenly seen the stupidity of trying to sue their own customers into buying ‘product’.

To the contrary, http://www.p2plawsuits.com/ (as it’ll be) represents an escalation in the RIAA extortion scheme, a move to streamline the process so the Big 4 can add more victims’ scalps to their belts, faster, lending credence to their false claims that the sue ‘em all campaign is stemming the swelling tides of people who are logging onto the p2p networks every minute of every day.

The Big 4 are now making a $1,000 per settlement discount offer to victims who agree to settle, to in effect admit they’re guilty of the RIAA’s charges, before a civil lawsuit is actually lodged.

RIAA college settlement plan
February 28th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- If you’re a p2p, file-sharing college student, here’s your chance to volunteer your name, address and other personal details to the Big 4 record labels so they won’t have to actually go looking for you themselves.

As p2pnet posted recently, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has launched a new incriminate yourself site, and it’s more than vaguely reminiscent of the failed Clean Slate program the RIAA tried on between September, 2003, and April, 2004. Check it out here.

Quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, ex-RIAA lawyer Matthew ‘The Dentist’ Oppenheim said, at the time, the so-called ‘amnesty’ program was an easy way for people to avoid a costly RIAA lawsuit.

The idea was: kids would in effect ‘confess’ to the RIAA, signing notarized affidavit promising never to download copyright-protected songs again and saying they’d delete whatever songs they’d already downloaded.

Said Oppenheim in the story, “if you would like some comfort that you can sleep at night after you engaged in illegal behavior, here’s a way to get that comfort.”

Then Eric Parke took it on himself to sue the RIAA..

RIAA ‘incriminate yourself’ site
February 28th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- “Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel, think they’ve figured out a neat way to save themselves embarrassment in the courts, and costly lawyers’ bills, as they try to sue you into buying their ‘product’,” p2pnet posted in today’s (February 28) lead story intro.

“Their ‘incriminate yourself’ web site is now online.”

The idea is: American students get to admit they’ve been ‘illegally’ downloading copyrighted songs without Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel, actually doing anything themselves.

And having admitted their ‘guilt’ (for possible future reference?) the students can use their credit cards to pay the Big 4.

As Ray Beckerman, the New York lawyer who’s representing a number of RIAA victims, says in a comment post, “I hope the universities will see through this obvious ploy to increase the RIAA’s stream of easy settlement revenue, and will assist their students in finding out what their true legal rights are.”

Howard Berman attacks US schools
March 11th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Hollywood Howard Berman (right) and John Conyers, another Hollywood enthusiast, have chipped into the furor surrounding the mounting attacks by the entertainment cartels on American schools.

According to the current industry PR blitzkrieg repeated by the mainstream media, US schools are hard-core illegal online distribution centres with thousands of students, described as ‘thieves’ and ‘criminals,’ stealing from the honest, hard-working Big 4 labels at every opportunity.

“Annoyed” at recent movie and music cartel inspired reports that, “online campus piracy rates top 50 percent, lawmakers warned college and university administrators Thursday if they don’t do more to curb the theft, Congress would,” says InternetNews.

The ‘lawmakers’ cited are principally Berman and Conyers.

The entertainment industries have been leading contributors to Berman since 1993, topping up his coffers with amounts totalling close to $1,000,000 ($932,096, to be precise), says OpenSecrets.org.

Students ‘worst customers’: RIAA
March 23rd, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- “Years ago, college students were our best customers,” says RIAA spin doctor Cary Sherman (right). “Now they’re among our worst customers.”

Maybe that’s because years ago, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) weren’t trying to sue students into buying ‘product’.

The quote comes in an Associated Press story on the fact the RIAA is again running wild through the US school system, sending out what it calls “pre-litigation” letters to college students across America, ordering them to pay a ’settlement’ amount. Or else.

In their most recent attack on the people who used to be their best customers, the Big 4 music cartel sent out another 405 blackmail letters to 23 universities and is now promising to send “hundreds” more every month, says AP.

This harks back to the days when the RIAA routinely fired subpoenas at men, women and even 12-year-old children every month.

Third school says No! to the RIAA
March 29th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Earlier in the month, the University of Wisconsin said it was refusing to forward RIAA ’settlement’ letters to students the RIAA wants to con into incriminating themselves on a web site, also paying it thousands of dollars for the privilege.

The University of Maine System also declined to become a Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG copyright cop, said spokesman John Diamond stating, “The only way the RIAA can get that information is if the RIAA takes us to court to get those names.”

Now, “The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee has joined its sister school, University of Wisconsin in Madison,” says Recording Industry vs The People.

Cartels boost attack on US schools
March 30th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- The hammer is coming, US congressman Ric Keller has warned colleges and universities, telling them to “get serious” about p2p music and movie downloads (he calls it “theft”) on campuses.

Chairman of the US House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, he’s ably supported by Hollywood enthusiasts Howard Berman and John Conyers who’ve joined in on the increasingly discredited entertainment cartel bid to sue students into becoming submissive consumers.

But before the stick comes the carrot, which would be paid for by US taxpayers on behalf of the movie and music mega-companies.

“The Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act of 2007 (H.R. 1689) would expand the allowable use of funds by the Department of Education to include technology solutions to piracy,” says internetnews.com, going on:

“Keller’s proposal comes as academia is taking increased fire over its efforts to curb the piracy that Congress and the music industry claims is rampant. Despite years of lawsuits targeting campus pirates, more than half of all college students still download music and movies illegally, according to the University of Richmond’s Intellectual Property Institute.”

New RIAA attack on US students

April 12th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA has launched another batch of blackmail ‘pay us or else’ letters at American students.

Ohio University, the worst hit after the opening attack, received the most letters once again.

Students, “should pool their resources and hire an attorney instead of settling,” said Pat McGee, Ohio University’s Center for Student Legal Services the first time around. “If everybody fought it tooth and nail it’d probably tie up the federal court system for ten years.”

Here’s the full run-down:

Bates College (7 pre-litigation settlement letters), Brown University (12), Central Michigan University (24), Colby College (5), College of William & Mary (12), Cornell University (19), Fairfield University (15), Florida International University (16), Indiana University (28), Keene State University (19), Kent State University (19), Morehead State University (10), Ohio University (50), Oklahoma State University (16), University of Massachusetts — Amherst (32), University of Maryland System (25), University of Michigan — Ann Arbor (23), University of New Hampshire (17), University of New Mexico (16), University of Pennsylvania (17), University of Rochester (22), and Williams College (9).

The RIAA has so far sent 1,218 extortion letters, and each one gives a student 20 days to decide to settle for at least $3,000 or prepare for a lawsuit, says Ohio University’s The Post, which quotes RIAA spokeswoman Liz Kennedy as refusing to say if these letters referred to file sharing that occurred after the first round of letters.

4th school says NO! to the RIAA
April 16th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- North Carolina State University is the latest American school to say No! to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG efforts to use them as pawns to terrorise students.

The Big 4 are wielding their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in a bid to stampede students into signing self-incriminating online documents.

University of Maine System spokesman John Diamond recently declared, “The only way the RIAA can get that information is if the RIAA takes us to court to get those names.”

The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee joined its sister school, University of Wisconsin in Madison,” said Recording Industry vs The People at the time.

Now, Pam Gerace, North Carolina State director of student legal services, is fighting the lawsuits for her student clients, says Josh Harrell in the NCS Technician Online.

She also confirms a strong suspicion p2pnet has voiced several times: 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.

“She 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,” says The Technician.

RIAA singles out 10 Ohio students
April 17th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Ohio University has been the worse hit of the various senior American schools Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG are attacking as part of their student marketing program.

Now their RIAA enforcement unit is going full bore after OU students who are defying the Big 4’s ‘pay us $3,000 or else’ extortion campaign.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) announced Friday it’s filed 10 “John Doe” copyright-infringement lawsuits against OU students, says The Athens News.

“The suits, according to an RIAA press release, ‘cite individuals for illegally distributing copyrighted music on the Internet via unauthorised peer-to-peer services such as LimeWire’,” says the story, going on:

“The release also points out that once a suit is filed, the RIAA can subpoena OU to reveal the names of students who have been identified by the trade group as allegedly taking part in illegal file-sharing.”

Presumably, “other students at colleges besides OU, who were also warned in the first wave of letters, but did not accept RIAA’s settlement offer, are now facing lawsuits as well,” says the story.

RIAA gives student 24 hours
April 19th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Texas high school student Nicholas Hightower, 17, his mother, June, and her sister, Rochelle, 58, are all potentially massive distributors of copyrighted online music, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG claim.

The Big 4 don’t really know if that’s factual or not, but rather than have their theory tested in a court of civil law before a judge and a jury, they’re using their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to try to terrify June - she’s the victim in the direct line of fire, for now - into paying extortion money.

And they’ve decided to do that by leaning on Nicholas and Rochelle, demanding that the two show up in the RIAA lawyers’ offices on Tuesday (April 17), giving them only one day’s notice.

And Nicholas, who’s studying at an independent school in Houston, Texas, was slated to take his TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) tests this week.

The RIAA university lament

April 19th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- “We simply cannot afford to write off a generation of college music fans,” says RIAA president Cary Sherman [right]. “Because we know that some audiences - particularly campus music downloaders - can sometimes be impervious to even the most compelling educational messages [threats] or legal alternatives [other threats].”

A little while back, “Years ago, college students were our best customers,” he said. “Now they’re among our worst customers.”

RIAA suddenly drops student case
April 26th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG bully boys the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have hurriedly, and without explanation, backed out of a case they may have been building against the mother of a 17-year-old Texas high school student.

The RIAA had Nicholas Hightower’s mother, June, nicely in the frame as an illicit distributor of copyrighted online music. But now they’ve abandoned their effort.

Ohio University caves in to RIAA
April 26th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Ohio University, the worst hit in the RIAA attacks on American students, says it’s “restricting” the use of all p2p file-sharing on the campus computer network.

For restricting read ’spying”

Starting at 12:01 today (April 27), “the 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, going on:

Once disabled, a computer’s Internet access will remain off until its user contacts the IT Service Desk (740-593-1222) and agrees to abide by the university’s computer and network use policy. A second violation will result in Internet access being disabled again and a referral to University Judiciaries if a student is in violation or to the appropriate administrator if an employee is involved.

Harvard and the RIAA
May 1st, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- In their efforts to increase sales and turn students into fully compliant consumers, EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) turned their RIAA loose in junior and senior schools across America, allowing it to run wild, disrupting classes, sucking up valuable staff time and interferring with campus life.

The Bush government seems not only content to allow this to happen, but is actively encouraging it.

Here, Wendy Seltzer and Charles Nesson point out the Harvard University’s educational mission is broader than RIAA demands

Congress in RIAA school attacks
May 3rd, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- US congressmen ‘Hollywood’ Howard Berman (left) and Lamar Smith have given American universities a May 31 deadline to endorse a survey which amounts to a pledge of allegiance to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel.

American universities are already under non-stop siege from the Big 4’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) which is trying to sue students into buying ‘product’.

Now, “congress” has, “threatened 20 universities with unspecified repercussions if they fail to provide ‘acceptable answers” about what they’re doing to stop or inhibit students from illegal downloading and file sharing’,” says Variety.

“If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act,” it has Smith, the “ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee,” declaring.

Stand up to the RIAA bullies
May 4th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Ohio University is doing its best to extricate itself from the tacky moral and legal mess it, and most other universities across America, now find themselves in, thanks entirely to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

It, and the other schools, are being threatened by the hugely powerful (in the US) Big 4 record labels, only one of which, Warner Music, can be said to be actually American. And even it is run by a Canadian. The other three are EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany).

In balance are the mental health and welfare of student bodies against possible attacks not only from the RIAA, but also elements of the Bush administration.

“US congressmen ‘Hollywood’ Howard Berman (left) and Lamar Smith have given American universities a May 31 deadline to endorse a survey which amounts to a pledge of allegiance to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel,” p2pnet posted yesterday, going on:

American universities are already under non-stop siege from the Big 4’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) which is trying to sue students into buying ‘product’.

Now, “congress” has, “threatened 20 universities with unspecified repercussions if they fail to provide ‘acceptable answers” about what they’re doing to stop or inhibit students from illegal downloading and file sharing’.”

Stanford University aids the RIAA
May 17th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- America’s “democratic decision-making process is in danger of being undermined,” writes first year political science doctoral student Kai Stinchcombe in the Stanford Daily Online, Stanford University’s newspaper, going on:

“If the RIAA lawsuits continue to intimidate millions of music-swappers, more and more of them will choose anonymous, encrypted technology that allows them to swap music even more confidently. The only effect will be that other encrypted traffic, such as communication among terrorists, will also become impossible for the U.S. government to trace. If we are going to blindfold the NSA at the cost of our national security, it should be a deliberate decision rather than an unintended consequence of an RIAA ’sue your fans’ policy that is already doomed to failure.”

More Ohio University students sued
May 19th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- It would seem having friends in low places hasn’t done Ohio University a lot of good.

Claiming students were using school networks to share music with each other, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) successfully intimidated university officers into banning file sharing.

Not that the action stopped anything. Music lovers simply shifted their activities to an intranet being run from the East Green section.

Ohio U officials hoped the ban will divert attention away from the university, which had until then held the record of most-sued among schools across America which had heard from the RIAA. And indeed, that’s the way it looked. Because when the most recent round of sue ‘em all letters arrived at university offices, Ohio was significantly absent, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by school administrators. And cio Bruce Bible is still calling the move a success - from the school’s perspective.

University of Washington file sharing
May 24th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Right now, mention p2p file sharing and American universities in the same breath and you’ll almost certainly be talking about the lawsuits launched by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG against student customers across the country.

However, as is often pointed out online but usually ignored by the mainstream media, there’s far more to peer-to-peer sharing than mere music and movies.

For example, p2p file sharing has arrived at the University of Washington in a big way, and there’s nothing negative about it.

Wanting to make classroom lessons almost immediately available to everyone, it’s using IP-based audio encoding devices throughout 24 classrooms, standardizing on Barix Instreamers

Ohio U failing students in RIAA attacks
May 25th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- It’s been quite a while since the RIAA last issued what until early last year were routine monthly reports on the number of subpoenas dished out to innocent men women and children it was claiming were massive distributors of online music.

Almost halfway through 2007, how many Americans have been found guilty of illegally distributing copyrighted music files online?

Not one.

How many have appeared before a judge or a jury?

Not one.

And how many have received subpoenas? The RIAA isn’t saying, and that’s hardly surprising. It would far rather people are left wondering, particularly when you consider that at a minimum, an estimated 60 million people regularly share music with each other in America alone, but only a few thousand are actually involved in copyright infringement lawsuits.

Boston Uni student defies RIAA
June 14th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- A Boston University student is blocking attempts by the major record labels to force the university to reveal names.

The demands were made after a Big 4 investigator apparently downloaded alleged copyrighted music from the university network.

In Arista v. Does 1-21, the labels’ RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is demanding the identities of 21 students but one of them, represented by Raymond Sayeg, is refusing to cooperate.

A “motion to vacate the ex parte discovery order, and the subpoena issued pursuant to that order, has been made,” says Recording Industry vs The People.

RIAA ID demand thrown out
June 20th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- A typically underhand attempt by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA to force a university to hand over the identities of students the Big 4 want to victimise has been nipped in the bud.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was demanding the University of New Mexico disclose the names, but judge Lorenzo F. Garcia refused to cooperate, denying the RIAA’s ex parte motion, reports Recording Industry vs The People …

Another school caves in to the RIAA
June 27th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Another American University has decided to put the interests of the Big 4 organised music cartel in front of those of its students

In a variation of the campaign started in 2003 to blackmail ‘consumers’ into buying product, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG have been cowing school administrators into acting as unpaid corporate copyright enforcers.

Ohio University offers the most infamous example, but it’s far from being alone.

Now, the University of Washington says it has no plans to actively protect students from RIAA lawsuits, but it will actively, “track them down and serve them the legal papers”.

“Eric Godfrey, vice provost for student life at the UW Seattle campus, informed students of the policy Monday through a campuswide e-mail,” says the News Tribune. “It said some students have letters on the way, but he was unable in a later phone interview to say how many.”

Arkansas schools ban p2p filesharing
June 30th, 2007

p2pnet.net news:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG have a unique theory: schools don’t exist to educate our young people: they’re primary product marketing and copyright enforcement divisions.

With that in mind, the Big 4 are having increasing success using their RIAA and threats of imminent legal action to blackmail American school staffs and administrations into compelling students to buy corporate product, and only corporate product.

It’s hard to believe this could actually be happening, but it is, and with the full knowledge and active support of the Bush administration and, sadly, what becomes de rigeur in the US inevitably spreads elsewhere, to one degree or another.

As part of its continuing implementation efforts, the RIAA has been hassling the Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN),

Now, starting tomorrow (July 1} the state of Arkansas, “will deny all APSCN P2P traffic at the State Network’s Internet edge,” says the Arkansas Department of Education.

Take a hike, RIAA: US universities
July 11th, 2007

p2pnet news view | RIAA news:- According to multi-billion-dollar record labels Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, they’re being “devastated” (their word) by P2P file sharers and counterfeiters, whom they lump together as thieves and criminals.

The Big 4 are using the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) as a blunt instrument to hammer people they claim are massive online distributors of copyrighted music.

They kicked their campaign off by issuing monthly press statements in which they tried to imply they’d successfully prosecuted an average of 750 men, women and children. The mainstream media picked these spurious statements up and ran with with them.

In fact, no one had then, or has now, ever appeared in a civil court - copyright infringement is a civil matter, not a criminal one - before a judge and jury.

The RIAA announcements referred to subpoenas, not prosecutions.

As p2pnet has said many times since the farcical sue ‘em all campaign began, the Big 4 organisation has also been zeroing in on universities across America, turning the schools into marketing and sales divisions, copyright cops and Big Music enforcers, wholly financed by parents and taxpayers.

RIAA fails to get student IDs
July 14th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA news:- One RIAA sneak attack levelled at the University New Mexico students has already been vanquished.

Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tried to weasel the university into giving it the identities of students.

Then it tried to do the same in Newport News, Virginia.

The first time around, “judge Lorenzo F. Garcia refused to cooperate, denying the RIAA’s ex parte motion,” said p2pnet.

RIAA student victimisation campaign
July 21st, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA news:- The pleasure of enjoying music has become seriously tainted by the venality of EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US), the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel who together control the corporate music industry.

Aided by so-called trade organisations such as their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which is currently terrorising music lovers in the US, they’ve succeeded in using their financial clout and elements of the mainstream media to escalate copyright infringement, originally a purely civil matter, to the level of major crime.

Until fairly recently, their practice was to have about 750 subpoenas aimed every month not only at adults they were accusing of being massive online distributors of copyrighted music, but also very young children.

The Big 4 imply these subpoenas equal successful prosecutions. However, a subpoena is merely an instruction to, “appear at a certain time and place to give testimony upon a certain matter,” as the Wikipedia sums it up.

It is not a court case. It is not a lawsuit. It is not a prosecution, successful or otherwise. It is not a suggestion that someone has been, or will be, found guilty of something.

GAO p2p ‘file sharing’ controversy
July 26th, 2006

p2pnet.net News:- The RIAA, owned by France’s Vivendi Universal, Britain’s EMI, and Sony BMG from Japan and Germany, with the only American company, Warner Music, bringing up the rear, quite literally accuses school kids of all ages of being criminals and thieves.

Every time one of them shares or downloads a digital music file, somehow, a sale is lost, claim the Big Four, without a shred of evidence.

And among the worst of these hundreds of millions of file sharing criminals are American college and university students, says the RIAA through chief spikesmen Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), with the MPAA offering full frontal support, created a self-serving organization called the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities (JCHEEC).

Penn State president Graham Spanier and RIAA president Sherman are joint chairmen, with Barry K. Robinson, RIAA senior counsel for corporate affairs, appointed as a Penn State trustee.

Should two entities, one supposedly concerned with teaching US students and the other solely concerned with keeping shareholders fat and happy, co-exist on a committee? Clearly, they shouldn’t. But thanks to entertainment cartel chicanery, they do.

No! University of Kansas tells RIAA
July 30th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA news:- The Big 4 organised music cartel’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is going flat out in a campaign to terrorise American students into buying Big 4 product.

Staffs at universities across the country had been cowed into acting as unpaid copyright enforcers for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

But not all of the schools are cooperating.

The University of Kansas is refusing to forward RIAA so-called pre-litigation letters to students on the grounds that doing so could be an invasion of student privacy, says the Daily Kansan student newspaper.

The settlement letters are in fact dangerous self-incrimination documents. Students pay $3,000 or so in the hopes of being let off the RIAA sue ‘em all hook with no guarantee that, having freely handed over personal data, they won’t once again appear on RIAA hit list some time in the future.

RIAA blames universities for lawsuits
August 10th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA has come up with another tactic in their attacks on American university students.

It’s now blaming the schools themselves.

The Big 4 enforcement unit is after 16 Philadelphia students, completely ignoring mounting universal outrage against the ongoing harassment.

The labels’ RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) accuses them of being illicit online distributors of copyrighted music, pretending it merely wants to “educate” them to the dangers of copyright infringement, seriously interfering with, and interrupting, their normal studies.

Now the RIAA is going after Drexel University network users, says the university’s student newspaper, the Triangle Online.

RIAA attacks UC Berkeley
August 17th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Not content with quite literally ruining the lives of thousands of American families, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG and their RIAA are also hell-bent on seriously disrupting studies at you at US universities across the country.

As part of their bizarre campaign to try to sue people into becoming compliant consumers of corporate product, they’re targeting students, using school administrations and staffs as copyright enforcement cops.

Now, “Starting this fall semester, the Recording Industry Association of America is bringing their war on pirated music and videos to the residence halls of UC Berkeley,” says KRON at Berkeley, going on:

“The university is warning students that if they use campus computers to illegally download copyrighted music and videos, they will lose in-room internet connections for a minimum of one week.”

Give us more time for OSU case! - RIAA
September 7th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- When Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA tried to bludgeon Oklahoma State University into handing over the identities of students, instead of instant compliance, it met with determined resistance.

Now Moshe Rothman, the Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer fronting for the Big 4 enforcement unit, is pleading for another two weeks to get himself organised, citing family illness as the reason for the delay.

OSU students made a motion to, “vacate the ex-parte order the RIAA had obtained compelling the university to turn over their names and addresses,” said Recording Industry vs The People when the RIAA made its demand.

But Jason Street, an expert witness who’s supported the motion, said the declaration of the RIAA’s Carlos Linares was “factually erroneous” and ‘misleading”.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) says has to have more time to prepare its papers defending the order, says RIvTP.

RIAA attacks Massachusetts mother, students
September 10th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- So-called investigators hired by the Big 4 organised music cartel’s RIAA to, “monitor peer-to-peer systems to gather evidence that can be used in a lawsuit” and have “sent out about 3,000 pre-litigation letters to officials at colleges across the country,” says a story in the Boston Globe.

And in a sentence which reads as though it may have been written by an RIAA hack, “After the colleges notify the students whose Internet addresses were flagged, those students get the chance to call RIAA to negotiate a settlement,” it says.

EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) have used the mainstream media to escalate copyright infringement, originally a purely civil matter, to the level of major crime.

RIAA vs Oklahoma students
September 25th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Oklahoma State University students are resisting Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG efforts to force it to hand over identities.

They recently asked to have strenuous efforts extended by the Big 4’s RIAA thrown out and now, predictably, the enforcement organisation is doing its best to have the motion killed, submitting an obtuse 25-page document, dense with overblown claims, as its argument.

The RIAA has filed its opposition papers to the motion to quash, says Recording Industry vs The People.

Jason Street, an expert witness who supported the student motion, said statements made by RIAA ‘expert’ Carlos Linares were “factually erroneous” and “misleading”.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tried the same thing with at the University of New Mexico, but failed miserably.

RIAA attacks University of New Mexico
September 27th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A judge in New Mexico has struck a blow upholding the rights of people being attacked by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMGs RIAA, said p2pnet recently, going on:

In an escalation of its aberrant marketing efforts to use so far unproven copyright infringements to force people to buy digital downloads produced by its masters, the Big 4, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is currently targeting students at universities across America. It threatens school administrators, who then bring tremendous pressure to bear on their own students. Very few schools have resisted.

However, unprompted, chief US magistrate judge Lorenzo F. Garcia saw through the RIAA’s bid to use him to compel the University of New Mexico to hand over the identities of students.

RIAA attacks stymie university CIOs
October 4th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- While world attention focuses on Minnesota single mother of two Jammie Thomas, under attack from the multi-billion-dollar corporate music industry, chief information officers from 25 universities across America are conferencing to find ways to properly do their jobs in the face of increasing onslaughts from Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

The labels are trying to sue students into becoming compliant consumers of corporate, and only corporate, product and ‘piracy’ notices for the 2006-2007 academic year have been the focus of conference calls with CIOs, “trying to find a way to protect and inform our students,” says Marshall University’s Jan Fox.

“We have to protect our institutions as well as our students, but we have yet to find a solution,” she’s quoted as saying in Marshall University’s The Parthenon.

Students help each other defeat RIAA
October 12th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Before 2003, hardly anyone had heard of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) —- unless, of course, they were among musicians the so-called trade organisation had screwed.

Now it’s a household byword ranking with ’scum’ and similar superlatives.

That’s because it’s tasked by the Big 4 with suing their customers into good (according to corporate perspectives) behaviour, which means buying their product, and only their product.

Suing adults is OK, but the best prospects for the future are students, so that’s where the RIAA is currently focusing its attention, blackmailing universities across America, demanding that schools send extortionate ’settlement’ students.

Pressured by school authorities who are supposed to be acting for the students rather than the corporate music industry, students are tricked into incriminating themselves, paying upwards of $3,000 for the privilege.

Students unite to fight RIAA case
October 17th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- The pressure continues to build against Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG and their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Thanks wholly to the RIAA’s bitter and ongoing persecution of Big 4 customers, the world media are waking up to the fact all is not as it should be in the corporate music industry.

Universities across America are refusing to help their own students against ongoing attacks by the corporate music industry.

So now seven students have taken things into their own hands, setting the pace for what could become a major disaster for the organise music cartel.

The students are among the estimated 30,000 US victims of the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign under which the Big 4 are using legal systems around the world to try and force people into becoming compliant consumers of corporate music ‘product’.

You’re on your own, UNM tells RIAA victims
October 17th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- In Students unite to fight RIAA case, I said, “Universities across America are refusing to help their own students against ongoing attacks by the corporate music industry.”

They’re not all kowtowing to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA.

Harvard pointed the way to go quite a while back but unfortunately, it’s the exception not the rule, and meanwhile, with most universities and their staff acting as copyright cops paid for by federal and state authorities, not to mention students’ parents, how can the Big 4 go wrong?

Now it’s been made plain to students at the University of New Mexico they’ll get zero help from school authorities, meaning if they’re looking protection against the RIAA, they’ll have to look to themselves.

RIAA assaults another 19 US universities
October 19th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s morally destitute RIAA is sending a heavy dose of ‘tough love’ to 19 universities across America.

We Rule! - says the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) , its main mouthpiece, Cary Sherman, claiming lawsuits lodged against Big 4 customers are absolutely essential.

Without them, “Its not a pretty picture,” he says. “Skyrocketing illegal peer-to-peer downloading without even a second thought about its legality or morality, and a small handful of legitimate businesses struggling to gain traction in a marketplace overwhelmingly dominated by piracy,” he says.

UNC student’s office violated in RIAA probe
October 26th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- University staffs across America are actively working as Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG Copyright Cops, funnelling extortion letters to their students and, with lamentably few schools following the example of Harvard which told the RIAA to take a hike and whose students have so far been able to focus on their studies instead of worrying themselves sick over spurious Big 4 law suits.

In Britain, the Big 4’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has been able to use the mainstream media to turn completely unsupported accusations against Alan Ellis, who ran the OiNK BitTorrent tracker located at Oink.cd, into a ‘guilty as charged’ finding without ever going near a court. And now it looks set to move the farce to Norway.

The whole shameful affair was, and still is, paid for not by the labels, but by taxpayers in Britain and The Netherlands in much the same way that in the US, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is using teachers and administrators, whose salaries come from public funds and parents, as corporate music industry enforcers without any expression of outrage from any quarter.

RIAA Ohio University spin session
October 31st, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Ohio University isn’t exactly a shining example of how well a teaching institution can serve and protect its students, and it was recently host to Jonathan Lamy who’s both an RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) spin person and an OU alumnus.

Giving the school to give the benefit of his wisdom, Lamy said the multi-billion-dollar labels are “hemorrhaging jobs and money”.

“Devastated” is another popular word frequently used by RIAA disinformation specialists.

Hundreds of millions of Big 4 dollars money are currently being spent on ferrying the likes of Lamy around the country to try to pass off the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign as a “necessary” educational effort, and on suing Big 4 customers, including students and very young children, into becoming obedient and compliant Big 4 ‘consumers’ .

Ohio University pays RIAA ‘expert’
October 31st, 2007

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.

Oregon AG backs university in RIAA case
November 1st, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- We’ve just learned the University of Oregon wants a court to dismiss a claim made by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA against 17 students

On what grounds? That the RIAA’s claim is, in effect, rubbish.

And in a major upset for the Big 4, representing the university is the Oregon attorney general, says Recording Industry vs The People.

In effect, the RIAA ‘investigation’ halted at the precise point where it should have begun, says Randolph Geller, deputy Orgeon general counsel, and a special assistant attorney general.

“In the case of sixteen of the seventeen John Does, I believe it is not possible for the university to identify the alleged infringers without conducting interviews and a forensic investigation of the computers likely involved,” he states in a motion to quash.

However, in these cases, as with all others, the RIAA simply says it believes somebody may have done something.

‘Now, give us the names, addresses so we can prove it.’

Cornell and Ohio: in thrall to the RIAA
November 8th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Ohio University has been in the forefront of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s anti-student, anti-P2P, anti- file sharing campaign from the beginning and once had the distinction of being the university on the receiving end of the most RIAA extortion demands.

Now one of its students, Brandon Martin, “could have to pay more than $7,000? because he didn’t respond to Big 4 lawsuit, says The Post.

“A default judgment by the court would rule in favor of the record companies by default because Martin did not respond to the lawsuit against him,” says the story, stating:

That motion asks for $6,750 in damages, $445 in legal fees and an injunction preventing Martin from further distributing the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works. Because the record companies are seeking the minimum damages under copyright law - $750 per song for nine songs - the motion states no evidentiary hearing is necessary.

With the University of Oregon as an example, is OU now standing firmly behind Martin and other university students being harried and harassed by the Big 4’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America)?

Use Napster or lose federal $: universities threat
November 13th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Years ago the the Big 5 record labels, now the Big 4, shoe-horned Napster Mk II (the deeply troubled, castrated corporate version, not the original) into universities across America.

The idea was: to avoid being sued by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA, students would use Napster to download corporate product.

It didn’t work then, and it’s still not working and Napster, meanwhile, continues to haemorrhage investors’ money.

But that doesn’t mean to say the Big 4 have given up on it, or other corporate crap carriers.

RIAA anti-student attacks floundering
November 14th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- The RIAA’s juggernaut against colleges, started in February of this year, seems to be having a bumpier and bumpier ride.

The normal game is to bring an ex parte lawsuit (ie, no one other than the RIAA knows about it), and without any opposition submit an ex parte motion for an ex parte discovery order authorizing service of a subpoena to get the name and address of the students or staff who might have used a certain IP address.

But the normal game seems to be getting disrupted here and there.

A Virginia judge threw the RIAA’s motion out the window, saying it wasn’t entitled to such discovery, in a case against students at the College of William & Mary.

A New Mexico judge denied the application on the ground there was no reason for it to be ex parte, in a case involving University of New Mexico students.

He ultimately required the RIAA to serve a full set of all of the underlying papers for each “John Doe” named, and to give the students 40 days in which to review the papers withou counsel, and make a motion to quash if they chose to do so.

In a stunning development, the attorney general of the State of Oregon made a motion to quash the RIAA’s subpoena on behalf of the University of Oregon, on grounds which are fully applicable to every case the RIAA has brought to date: the lack of scientific validity to the RIAA’s “identification” evidence.

UW RIAA web page

November 20th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A University of Wisconsin student has set up a webpage which looks very similar in aim and intention to Ray Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People.

The school is among those chosen by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA to have its activities and curriculum seriously dislocated by claims that some of its students are massive online distributors of copyrighted music files.

In the latest outrage, the RIAA is demanding the identities of identifies 24 UW-Madison, 12 UW-Stout, eight UW-Stevens Point, eight UW-Milwaukee, three UW-Eau Claire and one UW-Whitewater students who may, or may not, be associated with IP addresses the Big 4 enforcer claims, but can’t prove, are linked to file sharing.

The RIAA scam is set up so it browbeats staff into handing over student names and the RIAA, then accuses the students without having any hard evidence of any kind of wrongdoing.

It’s a PR exercise which is shockingly effective because most school staffs give in to the RIAA and at its behest, hand out what amount to extortion letters for ’settlements’ of thousands of dollars without anyone ever having been found guilty of anything, or having appeared in a civil court.

RIAA hits top US schools. But not Harvard
November 23rd, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA targeted several Ivy League universities in its latest “initiative,” as their RIAA calls it as it continues to wreak havoc in universities up and down up and down America.

InformationWeek notes that among them are Columbia University, Duke University, Dartmouth College, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Princeton, and Brown University.

But what it doesn’t note is the fact that missing, significantly, is Harvard.

Or as Ray Beckerman puts it on Recording Industry vs The People, this latest anti-college round, “targets 7 out of 8 Ivy League schools, but continues to give Harvard University a wide berth”

One could be forgiven for thinking Harvard is escaping victimisation because it’s co-operating by sending its students RIAA blackmail letters, as are so many other US universities.

But that’s not the case. In fact, to the contrary, “take a hike,” 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, told the Big 4’s RIAA attack dogs.

Columbia University RIAA unit
November 28th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Columbia University is one of the Ivy League universities to be hit by RIAA extortion demands.

Significantly Harvard, which told the RIAA to take a hike long time back, is so far unscathed.

However, instead of following that example, Columbia is using publicly funded financial and manpower resources to set up a department which will, to all intents and purposes, work for, and on behalf of, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

The university plans to, “create a Copyright Advisory Office, an administrative office which will provide educational support about copyright law and which will open on the first of the year under the direction of Kenneth Crews, a widely renowned fair use, copyright, and constitutional law scholar,” says the Columbia Spectator, going on:

“In addition, the University has already taken a proactive stance against file sharing, making all students sign an agreement stating that they won’t use the Internet to infringe on copyright and holding copyright infringement training during the annual New Student Orientation Program.”

Ohio student says NO! to the RIAA
November 29th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- As one major US university after another caves in to the RIAA blackmail campaign, proving bullying and intimidation are effective marketing tools, it’s being increasingly left to students to defend themselves.

One such is an Ohio State student who, with his attorney, Mark Kafantaris, is determined not to let the multi-billion-dollar labels turn him into an RIAA promo statistic.

And interestingly, BitTorrent is named as the P2P file sharing application.

Nine times out of ten, Sharman Networks’ Kazaa, itself the defendent in a class action, thanks to the RIAA sue ‘em all campaign, is cited.

Sharman and BitTorrent are now both working with, and for, corporate entertainment industries.

RIAA may be spying on students: Oregon AG
November 29th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Oregon state attorney general Hardy Myers (right) has joined people and organisations demanding Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA either puts up or shuts up in its bizarre sue ‘em all anti-student, anti-P2P, anti-file sharing marketing campaign.

He also says the RIAA may be illegally spying on UO students and ferreting out data they’re not entitled to.

They’ll be going bananas in RIAA land.

RIAA silent on Oregon case
November 30th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- There’s been no word, official or otherwise, from Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA on the allegation that MediaSentry, a company acting for the Big 4 enforcement organisation, illegally “investigated” students without a license, a crime.

Nor is it being reported by the mainstream media, normally quick to pick up and repeat any and all ’statements’ issued by the RIAA.

However, RIAA mouthperson Jonathan Lamy says University of Oregon determination to block the subpoenas is “misguided” and, according to Associated Press, “urged higher education officials to help prevent students from pirating music”.

“It is our view that universities carry the great responsibility of educating students about many important issues, including technology, ethics, copyright law and civic responsibility,” he also observed.

No doubt university authorities the length and breadth of America will duly take note of young Lamy’s thoughts.

Vanderbilt ‘plays nice’ with the RIAA
December 5th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- “We want to play nice,” says Cindy Frank, director of service delivery and project management for information technology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

She’s referring to Vanderbilt’s efforts to keep on the good side of the corporate music industry and its adherents, which have so far cost it in the region of half-a-million-dollars, she states.

Blithely, she goes on:

“We’ve negotiated very inexpensive deals for students. Napster is $2 a month and offers 3 million songs. We have also spent a lot money and time marketing them. We encourage these legal methods for downloading music.”

The above bald faced admission from Frank in InsideVandy makes it clear not only is the university working —- unpaid —- for Napster, a desperately broke, hard-core commercial music marketing service, it’s also acting up-front for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

Are Napster and the Big 4 footing the bill?

No. That’s down to parents and state and federal authorities responsible for America’s educational systems.

Fight the RIAA! MIT student
December 7th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Vanderbilt University’s Cindy Frank believes ‘playing nice’ with Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) the way go.

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 says.

RIAA Christmas message to US students
December 7th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA has acknowledged the season of goodwill with a Christmas message to university students across America:

Fuck You!

The RIAA has launched another prong of its twisted and bitter campaign against the people who keep the likes of Universal’s Doug Morris (right, with admirer) fat and happy.

Student lawyers act for students in RIAA case
December 22nd, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A student law clinic is about to cause a revolution in the P2P filesharing war launched by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

In what’s probably a world’s first, not lawyers, but student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic have themselves taken up the fight on behalf of fellow students.

Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki from the Cumberland clinic are now officially representing two Maine students.

Ames and Chmelecki are being guided by clinic director and U of M assistant professor Deirdre Smith (right).

They’ve filed a reply to the US Supreme Court decision in Bell Atlantic v Twombly, and the subsequent California decision, Interscope v Rodriguez, which dismissed the RIAA’s “making available” complaint as mere “conclusory”, “boilerplate” “speculation”.

Maine law students vs the RIAA
December 28th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- One of the most important, but as yet largely unrecognized, Big Music stories to break this year centres on a small university legal clinic in Maine.

And, it’s about to cause a revolution in the P2P filesharing war launched by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, p2pnet posted just before Christmas, going on:

“In what’s probably a world’s first, not lawyers, but student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic have themselves taken up the fight on behalf of fellow students.

“Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki from the Cumberland clinic are now officially representing two Maine students.

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

We added:

“This could be the true beginning of the end for the RIAA in its attempts to bring students to heel, turning them into compliant consumers of corporate product under threat of legal persecution and severe financial penalties no student can afford.”

Below, Smith tells p2pnet readers what the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic is all about.

Maine law students and RIAA: II

December 29th, 2007

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- If I was going to do a Wouldn’t it be cool …? list for 2008, this would be at the top:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Mitch Bainwol, Cary Sherman, Jonathan Lamy and all the others who work for the RIAA figured out there are decent ways of earning a living, leaving the Big 4 labels, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, to stew in their own juice?

Never happen and meanwhile, these and other RIAA spin doctors are raking it in as they come up with new ways to pillory the people who ultimately pay their salaries.

In 2003 they launched their bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign with the Big 4’s own customers as targets, this year switching their attention to students in universities and colleges across America.

It works like this: the RIAA has already successfully turned scores of US schools into de facto sales and enforcement divisions with administrators and teachers as staff, paid for by federal and state allocations and parent fees.

Having gotten school authorities used to the idea that corporate entities, answerable only to their shareholders, have a right to an upfront and functional place in America’s educational system, they’ve moved the campaign up a large notch, sending specious extortion letters to universities, demanding they threaten students on the RIAA’s behalf.

And many of the schools are, disgracefully, falling over themselves to cooperate, completely ignoring their students’ welfare and well-being.

==================

2008

==================

Penn State’s Spanier: RIAA all the way
January 1st, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Way, way back (we won’t say ‘back in the day’ ), not long after p2pnet first went online, we were the first to post on Penn State University, the first senior American school to join forces with the entertainment cartels in a move to turn students not into well-informed, innovative and productive US citizens, but into fully indoctrinated and compliant corporate consumer drones.

With Penn president Graham Spanier (left) firmly planted on the movie and music industry’s Joint Committee of Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, alongside ace sophist Cary Sherman (right) of the RIAA, the school provided the foundation for what’s turned into a full-blown entertainment cartel penetration of US teaching institutions, coupled with all-out attacks on their students.

Instrumental in hooking Spanier was Barry K. Robinson, by pure coincidence both a member of Penn State University’s Board of Trustees and senior counsel for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

UCSC signs up as RIAA copyright cop
January 10th, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) has become another of the American schools to openly enlist as a Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG corporate copyright cop, acting for the Big 4 against its own students.

UCSC has, “just started blocking and throttling network traffic,” posts b14ck, one of the university’s residential network (ResNet) technicians on projectb14ck.

What’s behind the move?

“They think that they can reduce the number of RIAA complaints they get each year (which reflects poorly on the school) by blocking Gnutella network traffic, but their decision is uneducated if anything, and will most likely not result in any less RIAA complaints, but more student complaints and workarounds,” says b14ck, continuing UCSC is a public university, “which means that funding comes from both students AND California residents”.

RIAA attacks another 18 US schools
January 14th, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA has kicked off the new year with renewed attacks on university students across America.

It boasts it’s sent out a new “wave” of 407 extortionate ’settlement’ letters to 18 universities, using “evidence of significant abuse of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement” as the excuse.

Mount Holyoke abandons students to RIAA

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, was founded by Mary Lyon in 1837, “when higher education for women was a revolutionary idea,” it boasts, also promoting the conviction that, “women can and should make a difference in the world”.

Not in 2008, however, and not if the school can help it.

The “conviction” doesn’t stretch to protecting students, or advising them on how best to defend themselves against RIAA extortion.

Mount Holyoke was one of the 18 schools named in the RIAA’s first attack of the year as part of the Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG campaign to use US teaching institutions as copyright enforcement and sales units, staffed by teachers and funded by taxpayers.

“A few years ago Mount Holyoke College received one pre-litigation letter,” says the Daily Hampshire Gazette, going on:

“The student settled the claim outside of court, said Lee Bowie, dean of the college at Mount Holyoke.”

Now, “Bowie expects the 14 people who received the letters will pay the settlement at $3,000 per person and not try to fight the allegations in court,” says the story.\

Another MIT student defies RIAA
January 24th, 2008

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.

Harvard chooses RIAA for law class
January 24th, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Harvard University has a number of distinctions, but one in particular is particularly relevant with respect to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s bloody-minded and bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign.

With that as a backdrop, professor Charles Nesson (right), William F. Weld professor of law, Harvard Law School, and founder and faculty co-director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, had added a rather unusual, possibly unique, element to his Evidence 2008 course.

Under RIAA v University, frame a motion to, “quash a subpoena from a copyright holder to the university for the identity of a student downloader on grounds of undue burden,” he says in what has to be one of the most apt law courses at any US school excepting, perhaps, Maine where two student lawyers are actively representing two university students.

Texas school waits for RIAA attack
January 31st, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- The Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas is nervously poised waiting, but not ready, for an attack by the RIAA.

So far, it’s ony had to suffer C&D letters. But that’s soon about to change, suspects a senior staff member.

And while the SFA waits, “Virtually every computer that comes through (the SHACK) has Limewire installed on it,” says Jason Lisenby, going on:

“Limewire serves only one purpose, and that is to illegally download files.”

We’re pretty sure Limewire’s Mark Gorton might find a bone or 10 to pick with the statement.

RIAA goes after University of Dayton
February 1st, 2008

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- “As members of a Catholic and Marianist university, we’re challenged to behave in a manner consistent with our values. From a technology standpoint, one of the things this means is that we discourage illegally downloading music/films because it’s unethical - and illegal.”

This comes at the end of an article in the University of Dayton’s Flyer News which kicks off with:

The consequences of peer-to-peer file-sharing used to be attendance at a class of computer ethics and a possible 30-day suspension of UD network use. Now, however, UD students are being issued pre-litigation settlement letters from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recommending a financial settlement or threat of lawsuit.

“Students see this as something that happens “out there,” said Karen Bull, director of UDit business services. “But it is happening here too.”

And it’s happening everywhere as Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG put shareholder interests directly in front of the education of American youth.

Instruction is being disrupted, normal student activities are seriously interfered with and public funds are tapped in the interests of maintaining Big 4 profits.

Slashdot it!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Movies, Music, RIAA News, p2pnet digests. 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.

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