RIAA Grabs Student's Life's Savings

An anonymous reader writes "ABCNews is reporting on a 19-year-old college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He created a site named ChewPlastic.com where students could search for files on the university network. Mind you, this is not a music file sharing software, this is just a search engine. Presumably, the search engine was being used to search for music files as well. The folks over at the RIAA did not take too kindly to the idea, and sued the student. He settled but denies any wrongdoing. What was settlement, you ask? His life's savings."

Chewplastic.com?

[Hogwash McFly]

I am assuming the name for this site is derived from the only remaining use for CDs?

So He Paid Nothing?

[vtechpilot]

Lets see, when I was a college student my Life savings was always near zero, what with the high cost of tuition and beer.

heh

[rgoer]

I guess the "and your firstborn" clause of the settlement wasn't made public.

What? No pay-pal link?

[Horny Smurf]

Shouldn't there be a pay-pal link, so we can pretend that we'll donate money?

His lifes savings?

[pubjames]

The news report goes on to state that the RIAA is now prowd owners of an old bike, a Pentium II numerous games, a pair of worn-out jeans and a large untidy pile of magazines.

College Life Savings...

[angst7]

Seeing as my total life savings when a senior in college was deep in the negative digits, I should have been so creative as to get the RIAA to assume my debt.

---
Jedimom.com [jedimom.com], picking out a thermos for you.

Re:So He Paid Nothing?

[mccalli]

Lets see, when I was a college student my Life savings was always near zero,

You weren't drinking enough. My life savings were beyond zero and well into the negative.

So...under this settlement, that means they would pay me, right?

Cheers,
Ian

Life savings at 19?

[ites]

When I was 19, my life savings amounted to perhaps $500 plus one old C64.

Which gives me a genius idea... the only people able to operate P2P sites in the future will be minors. Great move RIAA, push teenagers into crime.

Re:hummmm

[Anonymous Coward]

there out of control.

They're out of control here, too.

Screwed by RIAA, Screwed by Slashdot.

[mfh]

So this kid gets sued by the RIAA for writing a generic search engine, is forced to settle for $12,000 (his entire life savings), and his only real shot at recouping all his settlement money is flushed down the toilet by a massive denial of service attack "unwittingly" perpetrated by Slashdot?

This world is a cruel, cruel place. :(

Re:Chewplastic.com?

[Misch]

Perhaps he thought "eschewplastic.com" would be good, but didn't have faith in the ability of his fellow RPI students spelling?

I'm curious...

[unsinged int]

how much did you pay for the deer suit and the bullseye?

Re:Chewplastic.com?

[Tower]

Come on now, I went to RPI to be an ingeneer, and now I are won!

I'm graduating

[isorox]

Hmm, lets see, life savings....

I'm graduating in a few weeks, here in the good old United Kingdom. My life savings....

-£12,000 student loan
-£2,500 credit card and bank overdraft
-£6,000 borrowed from parents.
£32.56 - investment account from about 20 years ago
£1.52 - current account from about 8 years ago
PIII-600, cant liquidate it cause its a tool of a trade.

come on RIAA, I've got 8,000 mp3's and a copy of "find", sue my ass so I can become bankrupt, lose all my debts, and be free with a degree!

Re:Dear RIAA,

[Anonymous Coward]

France, if they dont give up first.

Re:His lifes savings?

[stinky wizzleteats]

I am usually not a spelling Nazi, but dammit, man! How could you misspell proud!? I mean, Jesus, the w is on the other side of the keyboard! You actually had to think "W"!

Re:silly..

[Misch]

"The purpose of a lawsuit is not to win but to harass" - L. Ron Hubbard - Cult Founder [xenu.net]

Yeah, and we know what that cult [slashdot.org]'s been up to.

Re:His lifes savings?

[buysse]

Hoocked on foniks, babie. Hoocked on foniks.

Re:So He Paid Nothing?

[Surak]

Hey if the RIAA wants MY life savings, they can have it! Here! Reaches in pocket, pulls out a quater, two dimes, a nickel and 2 pennies. 52 cents! My entire life savings! I spent the rest on overpriced CDs.

Re:hummmm

[Mr. Bad Example]

...there out of control..

There out of control.
There wolf.
There castle.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted to talk this way.

Re:He should have faught.

[fscking_coward_2001]

Ironic that one who derides another for lack of "cojones" will post anonymously.

Re:Umm....

[kammat]

2. An unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner.

So this is where they start referring to piracy?

Re:I have to agree...

[stinky wizzleteats]

Very few articles make me angry. This one did.

Where [slashdot.org] the [slashdot.org] fuck [slashdot.org] have [slashdot.org] you [slashdot.org] been [slashdot.org] lately? [slashdot.org]

Re:heh

[Anonymous Coward]

I know a lot of college students that would insist on this "first born" clause being included.

Re:Sometimes it's better to settle.

[Chris Mattern]

"...And that is called paying the Dane-geld
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay them the Dane-geld
And then you'll be rid of the Dane!"

Chris Mattern

Thanks, Slashdot

[esme]

Great. This poor sap has lost his life savings to settle the RIAA lawsuit. And now his bandwidth bill is going to put him in debt.

-Esme

Re:What's next?

[Mostly a lurker]

I shall tell you who ought to be next logically. There is a system used by over 90% of desktop PC users that contains capabilities identical to those the RIAA sued the kid over. It's called MS Windows. It allows you to share disks across a network (insofar as the owners permit it) and has a search tool to allow users to search for files using criteria such as name, date modified, size and content.

Now, if the RIAA wanted in one swoop to dramatically improve its public popularity, they have a perfect method. Trouble is, of course, they would have no chance of winning the case although their legal case would be stronger.

Re:I will if a candidate agrees with me!

[Schezar]

My High School government teacher, Mr. Barnabo, was a big advocate of this. He was very blunt about the way the US government actually functions, and it comforts me to know that every year he enlightens another couple hundred high school seniors with his wisdom. ^_^

Of course, he also knows who shot JFK. (It was the driver of the Limo, a secret service officer. Watch the Zapruder film, and you can see him turn and point something at the pres, there's a muzzle flash, the pres's head explodes, Jackie screams and tries to get away, and another officer grabs her and keeps her in the car as it speeds off. You need to watch the original: most tv documentaries zoom in on the pres and crop out most of the driver at the critical moment)

Granted, Mr. Barnabo was a little cookier than most of my other teachers... ;^)

he comes out way ahead

[donkiemaster]

if he gets his money back then he is no worse off financially, and now he knows that they suck big fat major ass. Now he has a purpose in life, to screw them in the a-hole. You can't put a price on that. Plus, you can bet that the RIAA didn't come out ahead financially. They were probably spending $12,000/hour on all the lawyers to take down this one kid. But at least they got lots of positive press out of it. Nothing says "I love the community" more than stomping on the financial future of our nation's youth. I propose a national "hug the RIAA day" to show our appreciation to these fine people.

Re:he comes out way ahead

[Anonymous Coward]

I propose a national "hug the RIAA day"

You mispelled "mug"

Re:He should have faught.

[Anonymous Coward]

> He should have faught.
> You should have failed your English class.

Maybe it was an American English class, in which case the proper tense would be:

He shoulda faughted.

Re:Pay them $12,000 alright, in *cents*

[scubacuda]

...he should make the payment in the smallest units of currency available, such as 5 cent coins (or 1cent coins if they're still valid in the US)...

With a bigass note that says (drum roll please)

CHANGE YOUR WAYS!!!

Re:Let's do both!

[ryanvm]

I just sent him $50 - that's the least I can do.

Nah, the least you could do is not send him anything. Like me.