New RIAA attack on schools
p2pnet.net News:- The Big Four record label cartel says it`s ready to push its black sue `em all sales campaign even further into US teaching institutions.
Its RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) will tomorrow file 405 lawsuits against students at 18 major universities.
The news comes immediately on the heels of another Big Four record label cartel initiative` under which its IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) has just announced it`s launching 963 suits against people in Europe and Asia.
Headed up by cartel mouthpiece Cary Sherman, this latest US onslaught comes, In response to an emerging epidemic of music theft on a specialized, high-speed university computer network known as Internet2.”
Through the p2p application i2hub, Internet2 is, increasingly becoming the network of choice for students seeking to steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale, says the RIAA.
We cannot let this high-speed network become a zone of lawlessness where the normal rules don`t apply,` says RIAA president Sherman.
“We have worked very constructively with the university community, improving educational efforts at colleges across the country, expanding partnerships between schools and legal online services and providing a clearinghouse for expertise on technological anti-piracy solutions.
Translated, this reads: We`ve been able to shoe-horn corporate music stores we back and supply into universities so they can sell our product. If they play ball and get their students to buy our stuff, the students won`t end up in court. If they don`t .
Centralized piracy servers
The four cartel members, only one of which can be said to be American, are also eyeing another 140 schools in 41 states.
While these schools were not included in the initial round of lawsuits, letters are being sent to each university president alerting them to the illegal activity occurring on their campuses, say EMI (Britain), Sony BMG (Japan, Germany), UMG (Francxe) and Warner (US).
“More than two years ago, through the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities [JCHEEC], the RIAA and the entertainment community partnered with higher education leaders to address the issue of piracy on college campuses,” says the RIAA.
“The RIAA, in letters sent today, is asking university presidents to take action to stop illegal file sharing related to not only i2hub but also other university networks like the centralized piracy servers often set up by students on the college`s local area network.”
Schools targeted by the cartel include:
Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California Berkeley, University of California San Diego, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Pittsburgh and University of Southern California.
Hard-core criminals
The RIAA, a component of the entertainment industry, is fighting a desperate and losing battle to turn back the tide of technological progress.
Led by a tiny band of venal, narrow-minded, technically ignorant corporate executives based principally in the US and Europe, the industry is attempting, and failing, to continue 1990s practices based on physical sales in the digital 21st century.
To regain control of its formerly compliant customer bases, the cartel must somehow gain complete dominance of the way files are being distributed on the internet.
It can never succeed but until it recognizes it has to embrace modern technologies and practices instead of trying to sue them, and their users, into seeing things the Hollywood way, men, women and children portrayed as hard-core criminals will continue to be subjected to this kind of legally sanctioned terrorism.
And while the labels rage helplessly against p2p, the numbers of file sharers globally and in the US continue to rise, disingenuous cartel misinformation reports to the contrary notwithstanding.
P2p research firm Big Champagne says the average number of p2p users online around the world at any given moment in March, 2004, was 7,370,644.
But by March, 2005, the number was 8,282,986.
In the US, with students and teenagers as the principal targets, in March, 2004, an average of 4,603,571 people were on the p2p networks at any given moment.
In March, 2005, the number had soared to 6,016,247.
Artificially inflated costs
In the meanwhile, you could be forgiven for thinking that the almost 10,000 people who have received subpoenas in the US have ended up in court where they were found guilty of file sharing.
However, you`d be wrong.
Not one of the people victimized by the RIAA for the non-existent crime of file sharing has ever appeared before a court, or been found guilty of anything.
The only winners in this are the lawyers and the people running the scalp-hunting agencies which supply the entertainment industry cartels with their victims.
As Britain`s Brian Petruska says in a letter to the Washington Post:
File sharing is a technological advance that allows for the costless worldwide distribution of digital media. By eliminating the distribution costs, it makes the world and everyone in it wealthier by enriching people’s lives with music and other forms of entertainment.
Second, file sharing will not bankrupt artists, record companies or movie studios. These folks will continue to receive royalties from radio play, live performances and cinema presentations. In addition, music consumers desire not just music. They also want pictures of their favorite artists, album art, lyric sheets, etc. Thus, file sharing does not spell the doom of an industry, merely the doom of a particular business model.
Record companies and movie studios artificially inflate the cost of distribution by enforcing their copyright monopoly on distribution. This monopoly is a gift from the government that is now contrary to the public good.
Technology changes, and industry and law must change with it. File sharing can increase the amount of music and art in people’s lives. I hope that the Supreme Court is not as myopic and chained to the status quo as The Post’s editorial board.
Jon Newton
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Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
cartel initiative` – Big Music cartel sues 11,552, p2pnet, April 12, 2005
network of choice – Big Music goes after Princeton, p2pnet, April 2, 2005
JCHEEC – University p2p ‘report’, p2pnet, August 25, 2004
legally sanctioned terrorism – File sharing, p2p criminals, March 12, 2005
enriching people’s lives – File sharing isn’t theft, p2pnet, April 12, 2005
April 12th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
with all the people they’ve effected, you’d thing someone would have faught back… or at least suicide bombed their office >XD
April 13th, 2005 at 3:57 am
âSecond, file sharing will not bankrupt artists, record companies or movie studios. TRUE!!!!! but their constant suing and calling customers Pirates WILL!!!!!!!!
April 13th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Like I said before, I don’t listen to the cartel generated products; I flush stuff like that down the can. However, if I did manage to find a song that I liked, I wouln’t hesitate to download it. I would even dream of buying the song. This would be my dose of punishment to the media cartels. I encourage everyone else to feel that same way. I encourgae every one else to do the same.
Most people download music simply to avoid paying the high price of the store-bought media. I have different motives. I want to see this morally bankrupt industry be financially bankrupt. Most of what is on MTV and the likes are not fit for kids, teens, or even adults to watch. Copyrights and patents were meant to protect profits for beneficial works, and I don’t see how this crap on MTV benefits anyone except those involved in the production and paid distribution of this crap.
I am not for censorship. I fact, I am all for free speech. As a matter of fact, I would like to see this “speech” free for everyone who wants it. If everyone downloads and nobody buys, then the cartels would have to produce work worthy of purchase or be forced out of business. Church leaders are misguided when they side with the cartels on this issue. If they sincerely believe in what they preach, I would think they would be happy in seeing these purveyors of explicit material be stopped. It can be stopped without censorship, and I am down for all of that.
April 13th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
I meant would not even dream of buying