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RIAA suit against 2 students dropped
By eric leventhal
March 30, 2005
Two illegal music downloaders at Penn are officially off the hook.
The Recording Industry Association of America decided to drop its case against two anonymous individuals identified only by their Internet protocol addresses in a Dec. 16 lawsuit.
"We've dismissed our case without prejudice," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, RIAA senior vice president for legal affairs, referring to the fact that the case could legally be brought up again.
The decision comes in response to the University's Jan. 20 announcement that it had been unable to match the IP addresses to any specific users. The addresses are numbers assigned to uniquely identify users.
Insufficient records made it impossible to match the addresses to a name, University spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said.
Had the University been notified sooner after the alleged downloading occurred, the information might have been recovered, she said.
"The subpoena was many months after the alleged infringement," Penn Associate General Counsel Robert Terrell said.
The University refused to provide any detailed information regarding its inability to find the two downloaders, leading to speculation that it was trying to thwart the RIAA. However, the University vehemently denies such allegations.
The two downloaders were among 754 sued on Dec. 16. Included in the suit were individuals at Columbia, Westchester, Widener and Old Dominion universities. Since then, the RIAA has also launched suits against downloaders at 32 other universities.
"College students are some of the most avid music fans. The music habits and customs they develop now are likely to stay with them for life," RIAA spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen said regarding her organization's policy of filing the mass lawsuits.
These are not the first RIAA lawsuits against individuals at Penn.
Six Penn downloaders were targeted in a March 2004 lawsuit. Only one of the six names was ever released to the RIAA, as the University claimed that there was not enough information to match the addresses.
Still, Penn is not the only university that has not cooperated with the RIAA. At Ohio University, where several students were sued, administrators ignored a letter warning of coming lawsuits against users at OU. The university only took action when served with a subpoena two months later.
Old Dominion University, which has also received lawsuits against several individuals, refuses to talk publicly about the cases.
The lawsuits put college administrators in a difficult position, wanting to protect their students but still having to uphold the law.
However, the RIAA has little sympathy for their predicament.
"The law is quite clear here: U.S. copyright law prohibits the unauthorized duplication, performance or distribution of a creative work, and we expect universities to act in accordance with the law," Engebretsen said.
From http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/30/424a59cb4c32b
User Comments
(These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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CodeWarrior
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Date: March 30, 2005 @ 8:45 PM
"Still, Penn is not the only university that has not cooperated with the RIAA. At Ohio University, where several students were sued, administrators ignored a letter warning of coming lawsuits against users at OU. "
TWO THUMBS UP! |
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TheSherminator
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Date: March 30, 2005 @ 8:55 PM
my school practically feeds us dmca flyers for dinner. |
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independentm...
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Date: March 30, 2005 @ 9:31 PM
Sherm, do you have a chapter of Public Knowledge at your school? If not, get one started. |
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autodidact
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 9:08 AM
"The law is quite clear here: U.S. copyright law prohibits the unauthorized duplication, performance or distribution of a creative work, and we expect universities to act in accordance with the law," Engebretsen said.
That is a lie, is it not? US Copyright law guarantees that one will not be prosecuted for unauthorized copying of music, if it is for private noncommercial purposes. It is called the AHRA. |
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INeedAlover
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 9:28 AM
" "The law is quite clear here: U.S. copyright law prohibits the unauthorized duplication, performance or distribution of a creative work, and we expect universities to act in accordance with the law," Engebretsen said."
Funny how he FORGOT to mention that when used for PERSONAL USE it is a non-enforceable infringement. Title 17, Chapter 10, Subchapter D, Sec 1008 means nothing to this moron. Obviously Engebretsen is a BOLD FACE LIAR.
"College students are some of the most avid music fans. The music habits and customs they develop now are likely to stay with them for life," RIAA spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen said regarding her organization's policy of filing the mass lawsuits.
Great strategy then... sue your BEST customers. Make sure they won't EVER want to do business with you ever again. Great business strategy. |
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nyer82
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 10:35 AM
I'm thinking UPenn wouldn't tell why they couldn't find the students because perhaps they were using a WiFi connection. Or maybe a computer lab. I think the music industry told Upenn they didn't want students to learn how to do it without being caught |
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Dreddsnik4
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 3:00 PM
Or, perhaps, the "Students" turned out not to be students at all ... hmmm |
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RaidHHI
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 3:21 PM
In an effort to show civil disobedience with regard to the riaa, We will soon be setting up a small wireless computer system with 200gigs of riaa albums preserved in scene rip mp3 quality. We are fully intent on powering this puppy up on a ups fed by a small pile of car batteries; using wifi. The computer and it's contents are expendable. We want to see how much data it can move, before it gives out. :)
We intend to do this once a month starting this summer; We've collected several low end computers that we're willing to see die, to show our appreciation. Oh, and for Lars, These mp3s do indeed bring out the quality of your music; So you wont be able to complain about poor quality as you did with napster. lol
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sandstorm77
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 3:51 PM
RaidHHI,
"In an effort to show civil disobedience with regard to the riaa, We will soon be setting up a small wireless computer system with 200gigs of riaa albums preserved in scene rip mp3 quality. We are fully intent on powering this puppy up on a ups fed by a small pile of car batteries; using wifi. The computer and it's contents are expendable. We want to see how much data it can move, before it gives out. "
I am interested in knowing how you plan on getting an internet connection to this box. I mean if you use wifi.....you have to use someones inernet connection. Which will have its own I.P. Address. Which the owner of that I.P. Address has the poential to get into trouble.
If i were to do something like this i would leave the computer in the back ally of like Starbucks. They usually have free WiFi.
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DeadMan2003
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 4:05 PM
LOL |
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gdZiemann
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 4:09 PM
Mandatory correction: Downloading is not illegal, therefore this entire story is pretty much total bullshit, written by someone who has no comprehension of the facts in the first place. |
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TheWitchingHour
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 4:31 PM
i would leave the computer in the back ally of like Starbucks. They usually have free WiFi.
So does my neighbor ;-P |
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RaidHHI
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Date: March 31, 2005 @ 5:11 PM
We have a local starbucks with a nice wifi connection thats completely open. We've been testing with laptops in the area. We are going to stash the computer inside an older dumpster that isnt used. :) We'll open up kazaalite on it, and order it to share all 32,000 or so mp3s we have available from our database. We sincerely hope the riaa appreciates our kindness.
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timwayne
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Date: April 12, 2007 @ 9:40 PM
I have an unsecured wireless router in a high-density neighborhood in San Francisco. It is unsecured because occasionally neighbors want to use some of my spare bandwidth, and I am not worried about hackery because I am on a Mac.
I do not share music (anymore) but I imagine others could use my router to share music. Since I am not guilty of any crime at all, would I be liable or sue-able? |
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