RIAA, MPAA, school threat letter
p2p news / p2pnet: Yesterday, we ran an article on the latest scare tactic to be aimed at students and school staff and administrators, and introducing a new buzz-phrase: LAN piracy.
"Twenty-five American universities will have regular teaching activities curtailed as school staffs put normal routines aside to work as tax-payer funded entertainment cartel enforcers," we posted.
"As part of this new program, the RIAA and MPAA today sent letters to 40 university presidents in 25 states alerting them of LAN piracy problems on their campuses and encouraging immediate action to stop and prevent theft by such means."
Below is the letter. Read it and weep.
Dear President __________
As you may know, the entertainment community has become increasingly concerned about illegal file sharing on universities’ Local Area Network (LAN) using such programs as Direct Connect (DC++), MyTunes/OurTunes (both well-known hacks of Apple’s iTunes software) and other similar programs. Our industries have recently launched a systematic program to identify and curtail campus Local Area Network (“LAN”) piracy. We write today to inform you that we have information indicating such a problem exists at [SCHOOL].
Digital piracy, especially on campuses, is an ever-evolving problem and it requires sustained and targeted vigilance. There has been much attention paid to the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted movies and music on peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing systems. While the majority of this illegal activity occurs over the public Internet, students at colleges and universities have been increasingly using campus LANs to set up similar systems without using the broader public Internet. The perceived security and privacy of these campus LANs give many students incentive to engage in activity they have otherwise learned is illegal and unacceptable.
The copyright community has been aware of the misuse of campus LANs since 2003, when lawsuits were brought against students at three schools. Yet the proliferation of these systems and the growing share of the college piracy problem attributable to them have prompted us to prioritize this aspect of campus piracy as a key focus for the upcoming academic year. In the wake of previous litigation, university administrators pulled down at least a dozen campus LAN servers where movies and music theft had been prevalent. We are hopeful that this new systematic program will yield even more positive results.
Illegal activity, whether on the public Internet or a school’s local intranet, is universally troubling. In addition, these mini-networks, while cutting down on the use of Internet bandwidth, still use valuable university resources. Fortunately, there are steps that administrators can take to ensure that a school’s computing network is not compromised in this way.
While illegal file-sharing on campus LANs can be difficult to detect for those outside the school network, such activity is detectable by school administrators. An internal investigation would confirm whether your school’s resources are being abused in this way and would allow you to shut down activity that, in addition to being illegal, is undoubtedly a violation of your computer-use policies. Blocking and filtering devices – such as RedLambda’s cGrid and Audible Magic’s CopySense – are available to help administrators restrict inappropriate use of a campus network.
In addressing university file-sharing, campus LAN piracy is increasingly identified as a key challenge by lawmakers in Congress as well as the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities. Public recognition of campus LAN piracy by these leaders is further indication that this problem is moving to the forefront of concern.
As you are no doubt aware, these issues are critically important to not only us, but to all communities that value the protection of copyright and intellectual property. We look forward to working with you as we continue to pursue a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy on college campuses: promoting educational efforts; working with university administrators on technological solutions and offering legal music and movie services; and when necessary, enforcing our rights as appropriate.
It’s signed by cartel hit-men the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Asssociation of America) Cary Sherman (left) and the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Asssociation of America) Dan Glickman.
No one in authority at the schools or anywhere else seems in the least perturbed by this flagrant mis-use by commercial organizations of school time, staff and other resources.
It’s just bidnes as normal in America, but how long before it spreads to other parts of the world?.
Also See:
scare tactic – New MPAA, RIAA university attacks, April 27, 2006
April 28th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Dear President __________
As you may know, the entertainment community has become increasingly concerned about illegal file sharing on universities’ property using such sneakers as Adidas, Nike and other similar sneakers. Our industries have recently launched a systematic program to identify and curtail individuals using sneaker nets. We write today to inform you that we have information indicating such a problem exists at [SCHOOL].
April 28th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Guess they’re hoping that some schools will fall for their bluff and cave. Sad thing is they’re probably right. Idiots. All of them I say!
April 28th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Anybody want to bet when it will become necessary to obtain a permit to posess blank dvds? How many of you actually need 100 blank dvds for your wedding movies?
April 28th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Dear Mr. Glickman
Thank you for your thoughtful and kind letter. Your concern regarding the activities present on our private networks are to be commended but still misplaced. As the word implies, Private, meaning not public, should have been considered prior to sending your letter. Further more the network has been paid for by the students tuition which in fact means it is their network. Further more the information being passed around is also private which means that it were best if you refrained from sending further letters regarding anything on our campus that is private.
While I have your attention I thought it would be a good time to point things our students have discovered during their studies. Out Stats classes have shown a number of times that sharing of information in fact increases sales contrary to all the press releases you have publicly released. Also, and maybe you have heard of this expression but, a product is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. By your own standards it would appear that your product has continued to decay in quality while your legal spending has risen exponentially. Maybe someone should reallocate funds so that you could improve your product, which in turn, would increase sales.
Again thank you for your time and I will be sure to pass along your letter to the owners of the network.
Pres of School
April 28th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Notice how often they use the term illegal sharing. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ISN’T ILLEGAL!!!
They are trying to scare people into thinking these activities are both illegal and criminal.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
ummm, I do yeah it was a really long ceramony and I want to send all attendes and those that missed it a copy soo thats 100 diske each at 10000000 people
April 28th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
hmmm unauthorized sharing just doesn’t the same zing as illegal sharing, now does it.
And how the hell are you suppose to know what all is authorized.
you may be innoccent of murder untill proven guilty, but the RIAA and MPAA know for a fact it’s illegal sharing untill proven innocent sharing… and they’ll sue you either way.
April 28th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
The sugesstion is good, but as CD become obsolte the “criminals” will use other things. These other things will need to be outlwed as well.
These things aid copying, sharing. They are object that facilitate c sharing for personal use and places where such “criminal” (per RIAA) activities commonly ocurr:
Memort sticks
Disk Drives
USB ports
PC to PC link cables
Parking lots (including those of courthouses)
School playgrounds
Visit to friends
e.mail
mp3
travel to countries where the “crime” is legal
etc, etc.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
April 28th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
hmmm why not just ban get to gethers, no groups of people larger than 1, no more families as they may ’share’ something without permission.
April 29th, 2006 at 7:14 am
None of your fucking business.
None of the MPAA’s business either.
April 29th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Don’t give any of those dickheads at the the MPAA and the RIAA any crazy and nutty ideas……………………..
April 30th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Office of the President
Whatsamattah University (Whatsamattah U)
Frostbite Falls, Minnesota
30 April 2006
Dear Mssrs. Sherman & Glickman:
Thank you for your correspondance regarding LAN so-called ‘piracy’. I was not aware that we had pirates sneaking around on our campus. No one has reported individuals with eye-patches, peg-legs or odd speech patterns (save a few students from Fargo, ND) during my 23 year tenure as president of this venerable institution. In fact, the last reports of pirates in Frostbite Falls occured in 1898 when the Ladies Auxillary of the Sons of Norway ran a group out of town and their pirate ship sank in the cold waters of Lake Superior from poor maintenance and a termite infestation.
While I will admit that one particular fraternity who proudly refer to their fraternity house as “The House of the Nerds” hosts something called a “LAN Party”, I’ve been assured by the dean of our Law School, Dean William O. Attainder, that there is nothing at all illegal about this. Furthermore Bill reports that none of these so-called LAN Parties has never had a pirate theme. The themes tend to run towards science fiction.
In your letter, you stated that you have acquired information indicating that this so-called ‘piracy’ problem exists here at W.U. Before I can justify diverting resources from educating our students to tracking down these alleged ‘pirates’, I’m going to need some kind of substantiation of your claim. Please gather any and all information you have collected regarding the claim you have made, and submit 5 unredacted copies of it directly to my office so that it can be reviewed by myself, the University Counsel, our Dean of Computing Resources, Dr. Fibonocci, Dean Attainder, and one for the files. Please ensure that all information is attributed to a named individual. It’s a matter of University policy not to take action on anonymous accusations, but we do afford confidentiality within our community should it be requested and appropriate under the circumstances.
Furthermore, Dean Attainder informs me that the ‘illegal’ conduct you describe is a mischaracterization of conduct that the law considers it a ‘tort’, as you did not claim that the alleged ‘pirates’ were attempting to sell what they were allegedly ‘pirating.’ Bill told me that ‘piracy’ isn’t the correct term for this activity, it’s ‘infringement.’ He also started to talk about something called ‘fair use’. Without going into excrutiating detail let it be said that some of the ‘illegal piracy’ that you alleged to be taking place may in fact be, perfectly legal ‘fair use.’ This makes it all the more imperative that you provide use with the complete, unredacted record of the information you are in possession of.
If you are not willing to do this, under the promise of confidentiality, then we will take no action on your allegations. Furthermore, we shall assume that you came by this information by extra-legal means. After showing Dr. Fibonocci a copy of your letter, he remarked that there had recently been a significant rise in attempts to access the University’s internal network through our internet gateways. We provide these gateways for students to use when they are not on campus, such as on holiday breaks, when faculty and staff are away from the campus on University Business, and adjunct faculty and students at research site throughout the world. Generally what Dr. Fibonocci calls ‘hacking attempts’ originate from teenagers in the local area, disgruntled former students and employees, and unknown persons in odd locations attempting to send out something called ’spam’ through the university’s e-mail system. However, the additional unauthorized attempts have been traced back to such entities as “Time-Warner Telecommunications”, “Server Beach”, “Media Sentry”, “DONet”, “SAVVIS”, “SBC Private Customer”, “Everyone’s Internet”, and “The Planet”. Dr. Fibonocci told me these had never appeared on his “hit-parade” (his list of habitual hackers) until just recently. Dean Attainder informs me that these attempts are in fact, ‘illegal’, subject to criminal prosecution, and not just a ‘tort’. Dean Attainder also said something to the effect that commiting a criminal act to secure information to pursue a civil tort is the litigation version of ‘insane behavior’. Surely, your organizations have nothing to do with this sort of activity.
I’m confident that Dr. Fibonocci has the on-campus LAN activity well under control. Furthermore, we do not have a ‘computer use’ policy at the university. Student bring their own computers to the university with them, and far be it for us to tell them how they should use their personal property. We do have a ‘network usage’ policy which prohibits ‘illegal’ activity, such as an attempt to defraud or e-mailing threats or dissemination of illegal images. It does not prohibit tortious conduct, as that is extremely subjective, nor do we monitor for it. Dean Attainder states that as long as we respond to specific, identfiable incidents of this nature, we have met our obligations as an ISP under something called the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996. Bill said it is up to the party who perceives themselves to be damaged to take action, at their own expense, in order to seek damages from whomever allegedly caused such damages. The University should not be required to subsidize the civil lawsuits of third parties.
You did mention some specific products that you claim would help alleviate the alleged ‘piracy’ problem you are concerned about. If you would like to purchase these products and forward them to Dr. Fibonocci, we shall be happy to evaluate them for you. Dr. Fibonocci stated that we would need “A volume license for 18,000 seats.”
As far as Congress is concerned, I would wonder why they would be interested in meddling in the affairs of a privately funded, private university like W.U. I suppose there are very few of them that recall the problems that occured during the Vietnam War with ROTC and subsequently with an institution’s affirmative action policies that included a sexual orientation component.
I’m not certain what the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities role in all of this is, but it doesn’t sound like they are a Joint Committee of Congress, despite the misleading name. It sounds like one of those dreadful tiresome committees common in academia whose sole purpose is to validate conclusions that others have jumped to, regardless of accuracy.
Regretfully, there is nothing we can do here at the University until we receive from you the concrete evidence of this alleged activity as specified earlier in this correspondence. Further correspondence on this matter should be addressed to the University’s Counsel, Dr. Omar Kyahm, JD, LLD, PhD, University Legal Affairs, Ruby Yacht Building.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kerwood Derby, PhD, EdD, PsyD, President
Whatsamattah University
PS: Mr. Sherman, as a personal aside, I’m impressed with your career achievements. No doubt your years of tutelage under Mr. Peabody have greatly contributed to your achievements. ‘Mister’ Peabody actually has 8 different doctoral degrees, yet modestly refuses to let anyone address him other than ‘Mister’. If you were not aware, he is now retired and a Professor Emereitus here at WU. He occasionally gives seminars on Einstein’s theory of relativity and the possibilities regarding time travel. He’s always a very popular guest at University cocktail parties, regaling guests with hithertofore unknown anecdotes regarding significant historical events. Hardly anyone even notices he’s canine.
April 30th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Dear University President:
I have been asked by representatives of our most important inustry (next to oil), to intervene on it’s behalve.
Reference is made to the leter that was sent you recently by entertainment and copywrite industrie hit-men and my dear and supportive friends, Cary Sherman and Dan Glickman.
I suport the leter and have asked our CIA and FBI heads to phalo up on this and keep me informed. Depending on what you do I will do will then decide what to do. After all I am the decider.
All I ask is that you suport your entertainment and copywrite industrys. We oll togeder must stop the sharing of copywrited material on the internet if our nation is two survibe.
Pleese, do not pay atention to the roomor that the entertainment and copywrite industrys are mostly foreing. We anyway have to insure that foreign investors like to invest in America so as to have replacements for our failing industries. Imagine if we did not have Honda’s and Toyota’s production here while GM and Ford are floundering?
Also pleese do not pay atention to the roomor that students download illegaly because entertaiment industry products are two expensive, unavailable and off low quality. Just listen to our exciting c-rap music and videos and you will see how grate the entertaiment products are.
As to the rumor that hardly any of the money made by the entertaiment and copywrite industry reaches the performing artists and songwriters, they are simply not true. Secret confidential reports given to me by the indistry says another story. Just beleive me. I would never lie to you.
As you may no, the last time a most important industry, the oily one, asked for my intervention I intervened. Surely you do not want us to invade your university, That would be an aditional burden on our trups. I will work hard to prevent that.
If you have any cuestions please contac Sherman or Glickman. They wil gladly tell you what to do to.
Your president
George W. Bush
p.s.
American universities are doing a heck of a job. I am the pruf.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:02 pm
Too bad a college president can’t spell. . .
We Americans are too stupid to deserve anything better than this, I swear.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:30 pm
So, after you’ve gone to see a recently released popular feature film that everyone was discussing and a friend later asks, “How did you like the film?” you’d probably answer, “My seat squeaked too much and they ran out of Junior Mints.”
September 8th, 2006 at 4:28 am
Please look up the term “wet blanket”.
December 29th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
how in the hell are these private companies able to illegally connect to our computers, servers, and networks with impunity and tell us we’re doing something wrong? mind your own damn business. i’ve blocked so many connections from Savvis alone, and in the last HOUR, it isn’t even funny. this is illegal searching of our computers, its worse than the fucking patriot act. leave me alone and find something better to do with my tax dollars!