p2pnet - rss feed: Hollywood goes after students
p2pnet.net News:- Is the tone of the headlines on Day Three of news that the major record label cartel is using its RIAA to sue more than 400 students for sharing music with each other online somewhat less strident than in the past?
Of course, many of the on- and offline print and electronic publications are either directly or indirectly owned by various entertainment industry elements, or they rely heavily on Hollywood advertising, which makes unbiased reporting a little difficult.
Nor is it merely the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).that’s on the rampage. Its brother organization, the MPAA, owned by the major movie studio cartel, is also targetting students.
But whereas in the past you could confidently expect RIAA zeroes in on student music thieves, or Record labels sue 405 Pirate File sharers, or Labels go after file share crooks, and stacks of similarly emotive headlines, today’s batch seem somewhat restrained, if not almost disapproving.
Groups sue hundreds in downloads of films, tunes - Detroit Free Press: Moviemakers and music publishers sued hundreds of people nationwide Wednesday for allegedly downloading copyrighted …
Recording industry sues students over music downloading - Pittsburgh Post Gazette: As promised, the recording industry yesterday filed a new round of federal copyright infringement …
RIAA to sue Internet2 downloaders - Xinhua, China: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)is filing 405 lawsuits against students who are accused of widespread downloading of …
US recording industry threatens to sue university students - Computer Business Review: US university students are alleged to have illegally distributed songs and movies across a private network, known as Internet2, which was initially set up to …
Hollywood Sues Students - Red Herring: The entertainment industry turns to intimidation, raining hundreds of lawsuits on students who share files over high-speed campus networks …
Princeton students caught up in new round of music downloading - Newsday, NY: Princeton University officials on Wednesday were awaiting court subpoenas for 25 students accused of Internet music piracy. …
RIAA Sues More Than 400 College Students Over Internet2 Downloads - MTV.com: In addition to downloading Web pages hundreds of times faster than the regular Internet, the Internet2 is apparently the fastest way to trade and download …
In fact, out of 30 headlines on the main Google News Sci/Tech section at 5:19 am PST today, only one contained the word ‘Pirate,’ and it came in the Calcutta Telegraph, India, which had Piracy students and went on, “Record label and movie studio investigators said yesterday they plan to sue more than 400 college students who used a special …”
Interesting.
But not one of the stories mentions that the masses of subpoenas (almost 10,000 people have so far received them with nary an actual court case in sight) file sharing isn’t decreasing, it’s going up, which flies in the face of MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA misinformation releases which claim the opposite;
Stay tuned.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
targetting students - RIAA, MPAA blitz US students, April 13, 2005
April 14th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
From now on, lets not encurage kids to share their things… lets just see how they turn out then!
Oh wait… that will just make them as bad as the greedy RIAA and MPAA!
April 15th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
I’ll bet that the Indie artists of the world would accept the business that comes from anyone that’s willing to download and share.
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/artists4good/index2.html
April 17th, 2005 at 12:10 pm
A great point IMHO. As children we were encouraged to share our toys and snacks with friends and family, encouraged to form relationships and meet new friends. Maybe it’s not the filesharer’s who should be punished here, after all, they are only following guidance instilled in them from an early age. In truth, it is our parents who should face the wrath of the media cartels. It was their callous and flagrant disregard for copyright infringement which has bred a counter-culture of dissafected youths who want nothing more than to share the pleasure of listening to their favourite songs or watching a halfway decent movie with their mates without each having to pay an arm and a leg for the privelidge.
Back when VHS was king, i remember reading about the occasional bust of pirate video sellers. These people were invariably painted as vicious thugs with links to organized crime and drug cartels. Who deserved to be locked up indefinitely for peddling cheap, poor quality rip-offs. I remember the TV ad’s with the dodgy bloke at a market stall, refusing to refund a woman who bought a copy of Bambi last week which turned out to be a blank tape. This seems almost justifiable to me. No one likes to get ripped off, and very few people like to think they may be subsidizing criminal enterprise (why more people dont count the likes of the RIAA, et all as criminal escapes me, but that’s a different story).
Now these cartels have had to take the dangerous step of demonizing the common man. It’s all seems a bit 1984 to me! Just think, the person sitting next to you on the train could be a subversive file-sharer, bent on the destruction of all that is right and good. If you suspect someone of gratuitous filesharing and dont report them, then you to are just as evil and twisted as they are. You deserve to be punished for allowing this to go unchecked. Fear everyone, including yourself. The crack down on filesharing goes hand in hand with the ‘War on Terror’ and the ‘War on Drugs’. Inducing a state of fear and loathing in the population. Another vector of attack for their psychological manipulation. It will become apparent that this latest ‘War on…’ theme will be as innefectual as the others, otherwise it serves no function. The ‘War on Drugs’ has been raging for years with billions of dollars spent on funding with absolutely no negative effects to the trade in illegal drugs, indeed it’s higher than ever. This is because the government needs it’s demons to keep the general populace cowed and fearful. The ‘War on Terror’ is fast proving to have similar success. Now we have a new demon to be wary of, the online insurgents. Spreading virii and malware wherever they go. Stealing passwords and bank account details, the scourge of the internet. Bonfire of the Vanities anyone?