Music piracy crackdown nets college kids

[babylonsister]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_hi_te/music_pirates;_ylt=Ahz5svNnnjFMJQY9R8oFkInMWM0F

Music piracy crackdown nets college kids

By ANNA JO BRATTON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

LINCOLN, Neb. - At first, Sarah Barg thought the e-mail was a scam. Some group called the
Recording Industry Association of America was accusing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore of illegally downloading 381 songs using the school's computer network and a program called Ares.

The letter said she might be sued but offered her the chance to settle out of court.

Barg couldn't imagine anyone expected her to pay $3,000 — $7.87 per song — for some 1980s ballads and Spice Girls tunes she downloaded for laughs in her dorm room. Besides, the 20-year-old had friends who had downloaded thousands of songs without repercussion.

"Obviously I knew it was illegal, but no one got in trouble for it," Barg said.

But Barg's perspective changed quickly that Thursday in March, when she called student legal services and found out the e-mail was no joke and that she had a pricey decision to make.

Barg is one of 61 students at UNL and hundreds at more than 60 college campuses across the country who have received letters from the recording industry group, threatening a lawsuit if they don't settle out of court.

"Any student on any campus in the country who is illegally downloading music may receive one of these letters in the coming months," said Jenni Engebretsen, an RIAA spokeswoman.

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[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. This (the RIAA suits) has been going on for some time now. I'm not sure why it's still news.

[msongs]

2. "Obviously I knew it was illegal....." but she'd piss herself if her stuff was stolen. nt

[Feron]

4. copyright infringement isn't theft...

I'm so sick of that RIAA/MPAA spin. Theft would be the piracy rings that set up kiosks with bootlegs of CDs and DVDs.

Mp3s are if anything a promotional tool. Ancedotal I know ,but my personal music collection went from 14 CDs to over 250 due to filesharing. I prefer to preview CDs before buying them and it's easy to find new, out of print, foreign, and non-mainstream music. CDs are simply too expensive to blind buy especially if you like foreign artists.

Anyhow the article is lazy reporting at it's best. If you share/upload files, then you will get busted. The RIAA/MPAA is not going after downloaders.

Unfortunately some programs automatically share downloaded/downloading files and the people in question were ignorant of that fact. BTW, never use bittorrent to download anything illegal because it uploads as you download.

[meldroc]

3. What disgusts me...

When the RIAA was busting students at MIT, when one of them said they didn't have enough money to cough up the $3,000 settlement, their bloodsucking lawyers suggested to the student that he drop out of college and work the debt off. :mad:

That's the way to do it! Ruin kids' college careers!

[depakid]

5. Eventually, this is going to lead to long overdue reforms

Intellectual property has become one of THE most abusive sets of laws that are enforced- and they've not only gone well beyond anything ever imagined by the framers, but they're actually surring results that are quite contrary to what was intended.

[ToeBot]

6. Eventually yes, but not until the recording industry runs out of money to pay off politicians n/t

[lovuian]

7. China and other countries pirate like crazy and they go after

college kids ...the Music industry is digging its own grave

[dsa]

8. Obviously I knew it was illegal, but no one got in trouble for it

i'm on the girl's side, but even i think that's a lame excuse!

[mudesi]

9. The recording industry needs to 'face the music'

They are no longer needed. Technology has made it so selling albums in the traditional way is obsolete. It's over. Songs are sold individually online now and people don't listen to albums anymore on their iPods.

When the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, the people who owned the buggy making companies had to disappear. The RIAA needs to accept their fate.