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The Daily OrangeCopyright crackdown: Music industry targets college students with lawsuits to stop illegally downloaded music files
By Heath D. Williams
Posted: 3/29/07, 11:24 PM EST Section: Front Page
"I would note a significant escalation here in the volume of legal action we are initiating," she said. "Over the past three years, we have filed about 1,000 lawsuits against university network users. Under this new initiative, we will be seeing approximately that same number in just three months' time."
Lawsuits filed by the RIAA are from $750 per illegal song downloaded to $150,000, penalties that are laid out in U.S. copyright law, not decided by the RIAA. Lawsuits filed by the RIAA are just one of the association's tracks of punishment for copyright infringement. The recent wave of letters sent to college students is an extension of the RIAA's lawsuit efforts.
"We're putting a step on the front end of that process so it gives those students a chance to settle those claims against them before an official lawsuit is filed," Engebretsen said.
There is no minimum number of files for a user to have illegally downloaded before being targeted by the RIAA. Weinstein, one of the targeted SU students, said he had 630 songs illegally downloaded on his computer when he was contacted by the RIAA but said he knew students who have downloaded thousands more. Another one of the 37 students targeted at SU, wishing to remain anonymous, said she had just more than 200 songs downloaded.
Kevin Moore, professor of music at Onondaga Community College, said he thinks it would be more effective for the RIAA to target users with the most illegal songs.
"You've got a million students illegally downloading," said Moore, who has taught music industry law and ethics courses at SU. "You can't sue every one. They're basically using the most egregious examples as examples, public examples, to try to stifle it."
The RIAA's other enforcement track is copyright infringement notices, which are letters sent to universities, leaving disciplinary action in the universities' hands. These letters identify an Internet Protocol (IP) address on the campus' network that is alleged to have illegally downloaded files.
Lawsuits filed by the RIAA are from $750 per illegal song downloaded to $150,000, penalties that are laid out in U.S. copyright law, not decided by the RIAA. Lawsuits filed by the RIAA are just one of the association's tracks of punishment for copyright infringement. The recent wave of letters sent to college students is an extension of the RIAA's lawsuit efforts.
"We're putting a step on the front end of that process so it gives those students a chance to settle those claims against them before an official lawsuit is filed," Engebretsen said.
There is no minimum number of files for a user to have illegally downloaded before being targeted by the RIAA. Weinstein, one of the targeted SU students, said he had 630 songs illegally downloaded on his computer when he was contacted by the RIAA but said he knew students who have downloaded thousands more. Another one of the 37 students targeted at SU, wishing to remain anonymous, said she had just more than 200 songs downloaded.
Kevin Moore, professor of music at Onondaga Community College, said he thinks it would be more effective for the RIAA to target users with the most illegal songs.
"You've got a million students illegally downloading," said Moore, who has taught music industry law and ethics courses at SU. "You can't sue every one. They're basically using the most egregious examples as examples, public examples, to try to stifle it."
The RIAA's other enforcement track is copyright infringement notices, which are letters sent to universities, leaving disciplinary action in the universities' hands. These letters identify an Internet Protocol (IP) address on the campus' network that is alleged to have illegally downloaded files.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Redwop
Michael LeBlanc
posted 3/30/07 @ 1:52 AM EST
I am tired of seeing article after article claiming that the RIAA is litigating students for DOWNLOADING copyrighted files; there's nothing illegal about downloading copyrighted material, provided you have a license for that material. (Continued…)
Dana Lukic
posted 4/04/07 @ 11:35 AM EST
I have studied copyright law and my confusion with this whole thing is that today's popular music is played everyday on the radio up to thousands of times a day by different radio stations who are permitted and begged to play these songs by the artists to the public for free. (Continued…)
DeMario Phillips
posted 3/16/08 @ 7:18 PM EST
I agree.
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