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Why the RIAA Targets College Students
WHY TARGET COLLEGE KIDS?
I think they ARE targeting college students for several reasons. Number one, college students, and young adults in general, are the "sweet spot" for music sales, in a demographic sense. Not only are they more likely to purchase music CDs, but they also are the main focus of a lot of the "digital download " music services that the RIAA would love to control. Thus, I believe they are targeting them because they want to make an example out of college students to try to intimidate other college kids NOT to download. Also, I believe that the RIAA thinks that college kids are probably some of the most prolific "sharers", especially using high speed college networks.
Secondly, I think the RIAA themselves, don't find college kids in general to be a very sympathetic class of defendants (Lorraine being the exception). I believe that the RIAA thinks that there is some sort of subconscious antipathy from the general public against college kids from to the following twisted reasoning. In a college in which people are losing their jobs and worrying where the house note is coming from, the RIAA thinks that the middle class secretly envies the carefree (lol..that's a joke!) life of the college student, who has money for cars, movies, concerts, music, clothes,etc.. Thus, I believe the RIAA thinks that, if you were trying to pick an unsympathetic target, that a "rich college kid stealing songs" would be one of the least sympathetic. Please understand, I disagree vehemently with this characterization of hard working college kids , many of whom are working their way through school. I am just trying to lead you into what I believe is the twisting labyrinth of the mind of the RIAA.
This next point kind of goes along with the previous one. The RIAA thinks colleges kids have more discretionary income, and SHOULD be buying their records, and in a perverted sense, I think they are using the suits to "punish bad boys and girls". Yeah, it is pretty sick stuff, I agree! They think that the kids can scrape together a few grand for a settlement, but that money and daddy will not hire a high priced lawyer to take this to court.
The RIAA, I think, believes that since kids have the stress of trying to take tests and all, that the stress of a lawsuit will be too much, and they are very apt to settle, thinking that a few grand is worth having this over and done with, and not having to miss classes because of court dates.
So, I think that indeed, college kids ARE special targets for the RIAA. But, traditionally, college kids have been some of the most active defenders of human rights, and civil liberties. The civil rights confrontations in the 60s had lots of college kids driving the fight. The anti-war movement during Vietnam, was largely successful due to the action of college students. One confrontation at Kent State, in Ohio, was memorialized in song by Crosby , Stills, Nash, and Young. "Four Dead in Ohio" describes an actual event, in which National Guard troops, many the same age as the college kids they were facing off with, due to an accident, starting firing on the unarmed students. Four students were killed and many more injured.
The point is, college students have had a traditional role in political movements opposing injustice. In fact, it has even become something of an expected part of some students academic life. This is a far cry from the devil may care, phone booth stuffing, goldfish eating antics of college students in the early 1950s. But, even then, music was a big influence on college folks, and they bought a lot of it.
Two things which traditionally have been very dear to college kids are being attacked. One of court, is their association with the music they like. The RIAA is driving a wedge between the big artists who college students like, and the students. It is definitely alienating if an artist, whom many students listen to , and are fans of, sits back ans says nothing and does nothing, but instead, lets the suits, on his or her behalf, sue the heck out of his or her fans, and does nothing to stop it. Kinda makes you not be such a fan if the artist is that much of a jerk!
The second attack is on the student's rights such as the right to privacy, the protection against the government issuing subpoenas to force release of private information without sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. And, as we are seeing in England and maybe soon here in the US if we are part of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), there is this drive for mandatory jail time for file sharers. If this act is seen as a felony, this can ruin a lot of things for a college kid.
In this country, felons can't hold government jobs, can't get hired in law enforcement, can't vote, can legally have a gun for protection, and on and on.
WHAT CAN STUDENTS DO ?
Many posters here are students, so to some extent, I am "preaching to the choir", but there are many students who DON'T come here, don't write congress, haven't signed petitions, and on and on.
There are many things that can be done right now to fight back, and the movement will probably be developing more ways to protest in the coming months. But, off the top of my head, here are some ways :
1) Write Congress and let them know you vote, and this is a very important, VOTING point for you.
2) Sign the petitions that are on the net, and which may be circulating, which show your support for those opposing the RIAA.
3) Boycott, Boycott, Boycott. Urge your friends to boycott, and if they don't understand, they are students...educate them!
4) Whether it seems to do any good or not, write your local radio station and let them know you want to hear more indie music, and LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE BOYCOTTING AGAINST ALL RIAA ARTISTS!
5) E-mail or snail mail your local television stations and newspaper (and/or school paper) and tell them that lots of college kids are interested in this issue and ask them to cover OUR side of it. If they want interviews, dircect them to the staff here at boycott-riaa.com .
6) Support Indie Music! Support dmusic.com .
7) Organize peaceful protests on campus or off, bring the issue to the forefront !
8) Hey...you're smart, let's hear YOUR input. After all, you folks are the future leaders of this country, I want to hear what you have to say.
Thanks for listening. Now get involved!
~CodeWarrior
User Comments
(These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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goldenpi
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 1:07 PM
Theres another, much simpler reason colledge students are being targeted. The expression "sitting ducks" comes to mind. Colleges will readily hand over the identity of a used to anyone who asks and has an expensive enough lawyer. They dont like p2p anyway because it overloads their networks. And the RIAA knows that if it can be annoying enough the colleges will install p2p-blocking firewalls just to make them go away. ISPs are less cooperative, they know that if they install p2p blockers most of their customers will switch. |
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compmore
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 1:08 PM
Code I agree that the RIAA may feel college students are not taken seriously. I wrote to a number of news publications CNN, FOX, NBC etc about the boycott and lamented about the fact that mainstream news coverage wasn't showing the other side of the issue. I asked if they were unbiased enough to print or look into the boycott that was going.
I received a fairly nasty reply from the editor of the tech section of USA Today. She must've thought I was a college student instead of a middle class father and business owner who is angry because she scolded me on our one week boycott, told me to let her know when we were serious about it and wanted more advance notice. She also suggested I worked for Carey Sue. Very disheartening from someone who is supposed to be "Professional" and has no concept of public relations.
But then again in her defense. she thought I was a college student I suppose and not to be taken seriously
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CodeWarrior
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 1:19 PM
goldenpi, you are right and I honestly forgot that one, but that is true.
Compmore...that is HORRIBLE how you were treated. The editor of the tech section for USA? Hmm...I will make it a point today to get her name.
For any college folks that think your paper or school publication might want to feature a well written piece on our side of things but had rather not write it, please let us know about it, and we will see about providing you with a quality , well written piece on the topic.
~Code |
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compmore
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 1:21 PM
code I can email you her name and email address and the copy of her letter if you want. just need to know where to send it |
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W-B
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 1:23 PM
It is also a fact that college students have, in totalitarian countries, been targeted for varying degrees of persecution and iron-fisted repression. The most notorious example of this was in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, when college students were among the thousands massacred and / or detained for long periods of time (in some extreme cases, life imprisonment) by the Communist regime in power in China in their response to the pro-democracy demonstrations there. Furthermore, even today they are targeting college students for constant computer monitoring to check for any "subversive" political activity, being as the Internet is controlled whole-hog by the government there. So while these specifics may differ from the RIAA's contempt and disdain of college students in this country for the reasons given above, it's one of these cases of being tactically and methodologically joined at the hip. In short, the old "Fascism works - totalitarianism works - tyranny works" mantra.
Unfortunately, those students who have capitulated to the RIAA's extortion and blackmail have only further emboldened "the enemy" and made it that much harder for those interested in freedom to truly fight the good fight and keep the RIAA at bay. Which reminds me (again, a different situation, but the essence is similar) of all the European countries from Poland to France that fell like dominos to German Nazi domination in 1939-40 -- and, when the Hitler regime began bombing Britain, made it that much harder for the U.K. to defend herself (although, in the eyes of some, if someone other than Churchill were running England at that critical point in history, she too would have surely fallen to the Nazis). |
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compmore
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 2:30 PM
Never mind code, I just sent it to your Yahoo address from your website. |
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scayf
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 3:53 PM
I wonder if they realize that: college students are also consumers, that college student vote, and that college student will "grow up" and be our future leaders in government and business. I was 28 went I started college, with a family to support. The last three years was spent on rotating shifts as a police officer, carrying a full college load under the old G.I. Bill. I never got involved in any movements, mainly because of apathy on my part. Now that I'm an old man, I know I can't just sit idly by and watch our rights be trampled into the ground. I spent an hour this morning on the phone with my musician son (I'm the biggest pirate on earth, according to him), debating the Internet, file-sharing, copyrights, and artists getting screwed. It was like arguing with myself. But I have a grandson to think of; I want him to enjoy the freedom I have (had?) without being paranoid that someone is watching his every move, online and otherwise. I've got two boycott sites up, and my car's sporting an offical "boycott-riaa.com" bumper sticker. I emailed a radio request in to the local alternative station a while ago, and threw in a few "boycott", "buy indie", etc. It's a start...when I find out what more I can do locally, I'm in. I have nothing, absolutely, nothing to lose. And my boy has everything to gain. |
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compmore
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 4:20 PM
cool scayf. |
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tasadar24
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 4:29 PM
I'm a student of a high school. I was wondering if somebody could create a good 1 page letter describing the RIAA's evil, so I could print it out and hopefully get some of my peers to boycott as well! |
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pizzariaa
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 5:03 PM
For Halloween, print out some fliers and hand them out to the kids when you give them their candy. They will read the flier and so will their parents... |
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CodeWarrior
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 5:16 PM
tasadar...send me an e-mail to
codewarrior_wins@yahoo.com and I will work on one for you to use.
~Code |
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surfside6
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 6:07 PM
Code:
Outside of the people who are or have been directly involved most folks have no idea what is going on. Many who frequent this website do not know about issues like drug costs for seniors, or the fact that congress wants to increase the age of retirement for military reservests. Most folks on this sight would support reduced costs for senior drugs and not raising the retirement age for military reservists, they probably do not know it is an issue.
Another good way to get the info out is to engage in conversations about the screw-up called the RIAA with people who are least familiar with the subject. When you get to the part about suing 12 year olds, you may get a friendly ear. But pick people who may not be familiar with the cause, and be prepaired to support their cause. In the end it will benefit you both. |
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CodeWarrior
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 8:58 PM
Surfside, that is an excellent idea and I really had not focused on that. In fact, it is such a good idea, I would like to expand and expound on that. This country has a LOT of problems, and, by and large, these problems are the problems of "Everyman", meaning the average working class Joe. There is a paucity of honest, serious, interclass, interage communication. Most of our communications are with those like us, intra-age, intra-race, intra-class. This happens because, at work, we tend to "hang" with people we have a lot in common with, and the same is true when you are at school. This is normal and natural, but it causes us to somewhat isolate ourselves from those not like us. Issues with age, prescription drugs, retirement age for the military, and certainly, the need for VA hospital conditions improvement is something you really only find out about from the people who deal with these issues first hand. I just think you did an excellent addendum to the article that really does add to what I was trying to say, and that really is the reason I solicited input from the other members of the board. I wholeheartedly endorse what you said.
Sorry for rambling on, but, what you said struck a chord in me about all the hungry, hurting, ill, poor folks who are being joined every day in this country by people who, not long ago were doing great. I don't want to get off topic, but you know something, in a very real sense, for the older person, the issues of loss of freedom and civil liberty are their issues, and the problems with paying for prescription drugs, and the rest are OUR issues. WHY? Because we are all Americans, and as Americans, we need to care for our brothers and sisters.
Sorry for the OT part, but I feel strongly about the need for Americans to finally get together for positive changes in the lives of all of us.
Thanks.
~Code |
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50sKid
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Date: October 25, 2003 @ 10:21 PM
To continue the OT, but very important side topic :
It is shocking for me to see how far off track this country (USA) has gotten. Every time I hear our government leaders [and I am a conservative] say that things are getting better, I want to scream at the radio / TV.
We are living in a huge, stinking pile of economic and moral manure. People are gradually being conditioned to accept that our standard of living must be lowered (the liberals strongly support this idea) to the rest of the world. I first noticed this happening when I moved out of Detroit, where I grew up. People in other parts of the country had been conditioned for years to accept Right to Work [for less] laws. I wanted to shake them and ask them why they were so confused that they fell for this garbage. It was always bad in the South, and in California. Now, unions are on the way out, jobs are first exported to lower wage states, then to Mexico, and then to China and India (where the tech support people for Dell are coached on imitating American accents).
There is going to be a violent and bloody revolution in this country. You can laugh at me now, but don’t say you weren’t warned.
We can't all work at McDonald's and be expected to pay $ 30K for cars that should sell for 1/3 that, or pay $ 250K for houses that should sell for 1/5 that.
Living wages don't cause those obscenely inflated prices. Grossly obscene salaries of top management need to be reduced. How many million dollar homes does one need ?
The goal seems to be to create a caste system, with no possibility of upward mobility, as is the case in India.
First, of course, the right of the "untouchables" to keep and bear arms must be rescinded. Free speech, and those other pesky Bill of Rights things have to go, too
Not only should we boycott the riaa out of existence, but this should also apply to Dell, HP [Tech support centers], Ford [all of their payroll department], GM [planning to move their Engineering departments], Intel [building all of their new processor foundries], Microsoft [programming jobs], and anybody else who exports jobs to India. A local hospital here, part of a chain, recently laid off dozens of medical transcriptionists, some who had been employed for [the magic number] 27 years. This work is now being done in India.
Sorry for the rant, but we are closer to anarchy than anyone thinks.
The world will be a better place when the humanitarian and living standards of other countries are forced to rise, not when those of the west are lowered.
The Kid |
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XxShadowxX
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Date: October 26, 2003 @ 12:42 AM
Code - "Rich college kids"? Isn't that an oxymoron? I realize there are some that have their parents pay their way, but a large percentage of them do not. As you said, alot of college kids actually have to work their way through college...
The reason the RIAA targets college kids is actually much simpler than the economic aspects - they are not anticipating actually having to go to court. Apparently, they think college kids are naiive, and easilly intimidated... And as you suggested, most if not all of them are too busy with academics to worry about lawsuits - sadly, the RIAA is often right in their assumption...Where are the college radio boycotts of RIAA music? Where are the anti-riaa protests at major record stores? Where are the college newspaper editorials on the RIAA's blatant lack of ethics in the "sue 'em all" campaign"? It seems as though many college students won't take action until it's too late (at such time when either they get contacted by the RIAA, or their school bans p2p access because of all of the RIAA-generated controversy).
There is one silver lining, however - many college radio stations are Anti-RIAA by nature. Oftentimes, they highlight local and indie artists...
Unfortunately, there are still some that play RIAA music regularly.
To listeners of these, and other such stations, I implore you - call the dj! Tell him/her that you don't want to hear RIAA sponsored music! If the dj doesn't stop playing RIAA music, stop listening! |
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XxShadowxX
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Date: October 26, 2003 @ 12:42 AM
Code - "Rich college kids"? Isn't that an oxymoron? I realize there are some that have their parents pay their way, but a large percentage of them do not. As you said, alot of college kids actually have to work their way through college...
The reason the RIAA targets college kids is actually much simpler than the economic aspects - they are not anticipating actually having to go to court. Apparently, they think college kids are naiive, and easilly intimidated... And as you suggested, most if not all of them are too busy with academics to worry about lawsuits - sadly, the RIAA is often right in their assumption...Where are the college radio boycotts of RIAA music? Where are the anti-riaa protests at major record stores? Where are the college newspaper editorials on the RIAA's blatant lack of ethics in the "sue 'em all" campaign"? It seems as though many college students won't take action until it's too late (at such time when either they get contacted by the RIAA, or their school bans p2p access because of all of the RIAA-generated controversy).
There is one silver lining, however - many college radio stations are Anti-RIAA by nature. Oftentimes, they highlight local and indie artists...
Unfortunately, there are still some that play RIAA music regularly.
To listeners of these, and other such stations, I implore you - call the dj! Tell him/her that you don't want to hear RIAA sponsored music! If the dj doesn't stop playing RIAA music, stop listening! |
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CodeWarrior
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Date: October 26, 2003 @ 9:35 AM
50sKid..dude, I am probably your age and you are right on target man!
But, I doubt very much if there will be a gun toting rebellion. Look what happened to Rick Stanley (http://www.stanley2002.org ) and his mutual defense pact. There was no one to defend him when he was arrested by the swat team the other day. Comfort doth make cowards of us all.
XxShadowxX-good points, and yeah, rich college kids probably is usually an oxymoron, like fair and balanced reporting being associated with Fox News. |
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