p2pnet.net News:- The major movie studio cartel says it’s joining its colleagues in the music industry by launching “several” lawsuits against people accused of Internet theft on college campuses, “which is an emerging problem due to the availability of advanced shared networks like Internet 2 (i2hub)”.

In one of the most fulsome, stomach-churning statements to emerge yet from the entertainment industry, “What if there were no movies? – MPAA boss Dan Glickman asked. Movies are a source of entertainment and learning about life, love and adventure and we will not let these thieves take that away from us.

The Big Music cartel’s latest attack in its ongoing campaign to use the law to force people into buying its formulaic, grossly over-priced product is aimed at US students.

It justifies this by claiming it`s only doing what’s right, neglecting to say it means what’s right for the cartel.

And there are numerous other facts the labels and studios omit from their carefully crafted misinformation releases.

Below are a few examples:

• FACT: It has never been demonstrated that p2p file sharing impacts sales
• FACT: Sharing music online is not a crime
• FACT: Not one of the men, women and children subpoenaed has ever been found guilty of infringing copyrights, or of anything else
• FACT: Not one of the men, women and children subpoenaed has ever appeared in court
• FACT: Not one of the men, women and children subpoenaed has ever appeared in court because not one of them has the legal or financial resources that would be necessary to meet the cartels fairly in a civil court
• FACT: The lawsuits are having little, if any, effect
• FACT: File sharing is increasing, not diminishing
• FACT: At present, there is no viable corporate online music business
• FACT: Apple is the only corporate music store backed and supplied by the cartel that`s making any headway, and even it is barely breaking even
• FACT: While the cartel tries to sue its former customers into compliance with its outdated and outmoded ways of doing business, the rest of the world is adopting p2p as a primary 21st century means of sales, marketing, promotion and distribution
• FACT: Only one member of the music label cartel which owns the Recording Industry Association of America is American, and that’s Warner. The two-thirds majority comprises: EMI (Britain), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and UMG (France)

Below the full, unexpurgated spiels from the cartels, starting with the MPAA.

Read on:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

FIRST NAMED DEFENDANT LAWSUITS TO BE FILED IN MPAA ILLEGAL FILESWAPPING ACTIONS

Individuals Named in Lawsuits Throughout the United States
Additional Doe Lawsuits Target Illegal File-swappers at Colleges and Universities Los Angeles
By Dan Glickman – MPAA

Following its initial filing of John Doe lawsuits against individuals engaged in illegal Internet file-swapping, Motion Picture Association President and CEO Dan Glickman announced today that the first round of defendants will be named and served Wednesday.

These people are Internet thieves and we will not stand by while they steal millions of dollars of copyrighted material with no regard for the law, said Glickman. With these lawsuits, which reach from Honolulu, Hawaii to Kokomo, Indiana our message to these thieves is clear you are not anonymous and you will be held responsible: You can click but you cannot hide.

Additionally, the MPAA today announced several lawsuits against John Does accused of Internet theft on college campuses which is an emerging problem due to the availability of advanced shared networks like Internet 2 (i2hub).

Digital file sharing is the way of the future and we want to help educate students about the legal ways to get our products on-line through services like Ruckus and Cdigix, CinemaNow and Movielink.

Last November, the MPAA announced that in conjunction with its members and other film studios, it was expanding its campaign against film piracy. The major movie studios filed lawsuits against individuals as end-users who have illegally downloaded or traded movies via the Internet. Since then, a number of those individuals have been contacted and asked to settle with the member companies. Those who chose not to settle are now being named in individual lawsuits filed around the country.

The lawsuits and public identification of individual people illegally downloading and trading movies on-line signal a dramatic escalation in the motion picture industry`s campaign to fight film piracy and raise awareness about the damaging phenomenon of illegal file-swapping.

A federal interagency report published in 2004, estimated that counterfeit and pirated goods, including those of copyrighted works, cost the American economy $250 billion a year. In response to the report, the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies have committed to increased law-enforcement and prosecutorial efforts against pirated and counterfeit goods.

Glickman made the announcement today at the American Film Institute during the Franco-American Anti-Piracy seminar that was held as a part of the annual City of Angels, City of Lights Film Festival. What if there were no movies? Glickman asked the crowd. Movies are a source of entertainment and learning about life, love and adventure and we will not let these thieves take that away from us.

For more information, contact:
MPAA Los Angeles 818-995-6600
Public Relations Office
Kori Bernards
Anne Caliguiri

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

RIAA Targets New Piracy Epidemic On Special High-Speed Campus Network
Lawsuits Brought Against Egregious Abusers of Internet2, Students Cited Offering Cumulative of More Than 1.5 Million Files
By Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman – RIAA

WASHINGTON, DC — In response to an emerging epidemic of music theft on a specialized, high-speed university computer network known as Internet2, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, will file tomorrow copyright infringement lawsuits against 405 students at 18 different colleges across the country.

Internet2 is an advanced network created by participating colleges and universities for important academic research. Through the use of a file-sharing application known as i2hub, however, Internet2 is increasingly becoming the network of choice for students seeking to steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale. Downloading from i2hub via Internet2 is extremely fast — in most cases, less than five minutes for a movie or less than 20 seconds for a song. Students find i2hub especially appealing because they mistakenly believe their illegal file-sharing activities can`t be detected in the closed environment of the Internet2 network.

This next generation of the Internet is an extraordinarily exciting tool for researchers, technologists and many others with valuable legitimate uses, said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA. Yet, we cannot let this high-speed network become a zone of lawlessness where the normal rules don`t apply. 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. We cannot let rampant illegal downloading on Internet2 jeopardize this collaborative work. By taking this initial action, we are putting students and administrators everywhere on notice that there are consequences for unlawful uses of this special network.

In addition to the 18 campuses whose students are being sued, the RIAA has evidence of i2hub infringement at 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.

More than two years ago, through the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, the RIAA and the entertainment community partnered with higher education leaders to address the issue of piracy on college campuses. Today, administrators are placing greater emphasis on teaching students about their responsibilities to respect copyrights and are making strides in strengthening and enforcing campus computer use policies on copyrighted materials. More than 40 institutions now offer legitimate on-line music delivery services to their students, and many schools are experimenting with technological means such as filtering to reduce the incidence of illegal activity.

Without question, the Joint Committee`s efforts to respond to the issue of illegal P2P file sharing on campus networks continue to yield significant dividends, Sherman said. In order to maintain the gains we`ve made, we must move quickly to address this new threat emerging from i2hub and similar applications. We know that it`s very difficult for these legal services to gain real traction on college campuses when pirate services with lightning fast downloads are easily available to students with no seeming likelihood of detection or threat of consequences.

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. The letter, signed by the RIAA`s Sherman, asks university leaders to explore technical measures such as filtering and consider legitimate alternatives to offer to students.

We think that any policymaker or campus administrator would be outraged to learn that a special, high-speed Internet technology designed for academic research has been hijacked for illegal purposes, said Sherman. Surely taxpayers would not want their money through federal agency grants and R&D funding facilitating the rampant theft of intellectual property on our college campuses.

A total of 405 lawsuits will be filed tomorrow against students at 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. Combined, the students being sued have illegally distributed more than 1.5 million total files, including more than 930,000 songs.

While evidence of infringing activity on i2hub is extensive, the RIAA has chosen to limit the number of lawsuits to 25 per school at this time. In addition, the 405 lawsuits that will be filed tomorrow are against some of the most egregious abusers of Internet2 technology. The average number of mp3 files shared by users sued in this round is more than 2,300, while the average number of total files is more than 3,900. Some users have shared as many as 13,600 mp3 files and as many as 72,700 total files (such as audio, software and video).

#####

Contacts:
Jonathan Lamy
Jenni Engebretsen
Amanda Hunter
202-775-0101

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

<------Cooling fans generate white noise, which aids sleep------>

See:-
aimed at US students – New RIAA attack on schools, p2pnet, April 12, 2005

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 13th, 2005 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 5992 times