University of Ohio Abandons Students Attacked by RIAA 242
newtley writes "The University of Ohio was putting a brave face on being #1 on the RIAA hit list, but it now appears they have caved in to RIAA intimidation. Now, 'It appears that many institutions are simply prepared to wash their hands, refusing even to question the tactics of the industry,' let alone giving students meaningful legal assistance, says Ohio lawyer Joe Hazelbaker. He's written to OU associate director of legal affairs Barbara Nalazek saying, 'Ohio University has an obligation to protect the privacy of its students and their records, which includes directory information.' The Recording Industry vs. The People blog is hosting a letter universities whose students being attacked might want to consider."
How It Went Down (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdot's hugely biased reporting (Score:5, Informative)
And mind you, many of these words may be buzzwords, but at their heart, can you honestly say this is not intimidation? How many people who have NOT downloaded anything illegally have been sued? How many laws (note, LAWS) has the RIAA tried to bend/break in order to GET information on people?
And one last bit that gets said over and over again:
When you pay for that System of a Down CD, 95% of that money (number made up off top of my head, point is, vast majority) goes to... the RIAA/its affiliates. Bands make money off of tours, merchandise, etc.
And for the record, no, I don't pirate music. Or anything, really. I simply don't really care for most music, and my last album (Weird Al's Straight Outta Lynwood) I did get in physical form.
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You are right. They did not steal. Copyright infringement and theft are not the same thing.
However, they did break the law. Copyright infringement is against the law.
Re:Slashdot's hugely biased reporting (Score:4, Interesting)
For another example, fan fiction and fan art, except where explicitly approved by the creators, are in fact acts of copyright infringement. You're using established and copyrighted characters and stories for your own use. However, companies find this to be free advertising in many cases, or too trivial to worry about. Yet we don't have police attempting to shut down fan-fiction.net. Why isn't DeviantART being pulled down for numerous charges?
This is why I said, though poorly, it was not illegal. Personal use, as opposed to ripping DVDs/CDs and selling them on a market somewhere, is often a very disputable act.
Re:Slashdot's hugely biased reporting (Score:4, Insightful)
"copyright infringement != theft. That's why people aren't locked up for it. They're sued."
Serious question here: why do you say this? People do go to jail for copyright infringement; it's usually reported here on Slashdot with the expected response. It looks like you've been around on Slashdot to see this covered. If you can honestly tell me that you've never heard of somebody being locked up for copyright infringement, I'll beelieve you -- I'll just be very surprised!
I'm certain it's fairly common knowledge that "crimes which involve theft" and "crimes for which you can go to jail" are distinct sets. There's a union between the two, to be sure, but unless I've misread you, you're stating that the latter is a subset of the former. To use a touchy example, the crime of rape. Yes, yes, one could say that a rapist "steals the victim's innocence," but it's not theft. Yet -- just as if you pirate enough software or music -- you can go to jail for it.
"When you pay for that System of a Down CD, 95% of that money (number made up off top of my head, point is, vast majority) goes to... the RIAA/its affiliates. Bands make money off of tours, merchandise, etc."
Very true. Another example: I'm director level at a computer peripheral company. I'm responsible for some $40MM worth of business, yet my salary is (sound familiar?) less than 10% of gross sales. My company, like record companies, uses the rest to pay everybody else who was involved in creating, shipping, and selling my products.
This is, sadly, how it works with most industries. I'll grant that this is a surprise to most people and it really is via the record industry that many Slashdotters have learned this unfortunate fact about the business world -- but two wrongs still do not make a right.
What somebody needs to do is come up with a business model for a record company where the record company funds all the costs of production, promotion, distribution, and so on, yet does not attempt to recoup those costs before paying the artists. The first Slashdotter to do this will be very popular indeed.
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The unfortunate fact is that most Slashdotters have zero business knowledge, except how to use the phrase "change your business model". What they do know about is software, specifically free software. Since this also fits on a CD, they have difficulty understanding why the music business can't work like open-source. Nor do they see
Actually, they're right (Score:3, Interesting)
No, there are actually several viable ways the music "industry" could prosper and artists thrive. Almost none of them involve the companies that make up the RIAA.
The irony of the push by the RIAA to get royalties every time a record is played is that it will accelerate their own demise. But they seem content to kill their own future, as long as they get more money this year. But the music business has always been that
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Google "US Code copyright" (United States Code)
This will settle the argument that copyright infringment is, in fact, a crimal offense that can result in jail time.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/u sc_sec_18_00002319----000-.html [cornell.edu]
Re:Slashdot's hugely biased reporting (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_efforts_against
A list of people who have been sued for downloading songs when they didn't own a computer, know how to use one, weren't even 13, and had no clue as to either how to use a computer or the consequences of downloading. Hey, they've even tried to sue dead people!
And this list is obviously incomplete. And let me ask you: How did the RIAA find out about who took what? It obviously isn't very effective. And considering that they've gone to courts to ask for permission to lie to customers to snoop for information, they've threatened ISPs into handing over data, etc.
Honestly, if a company wanted to read your mail and check your packages for stolen goods without any warrant, would you be fine with that? I fucking wouldn't, that's for sure. So why should we put up with it in our digital mail?
And hey, here's ANOTHER question. How do you know these threatened students are guilty? You seem to have a pretty clear attitude of "guilty until proven innocent."
I mean, suppose for a second that ALL these kids are innocent. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. We don't know. But for the sake of argument, let's say they are. How, exactly, are they going to get out of this? Hire a good lawyer? Yeah, because a bunch of college students can hire a great lawyer to match wits with the RIAA's team of lawyers. Their choices include settle for thousands of dollars or... well, that's it, really.
It'd be one thing if they WERE just protecting their "rights." But they're doing so by taking wild shots in the dark, forcing people into expensive settlements, and trying to bend or break the law into their own will. That's a FUCK ton worse than downloading Paris Hilton or whoever the fuck is out there's latest overpriced shit.
And yeah, copyright infringement is NOT theft. That's why it's CALLED infringement, NOT THEFT. Theft involves taking something. I take the money from your wallet. That's stealing. I hijack your car. That's stealing. I COPY your book. That's infringement. (Notice how in all but one example you lose the ability to use the object? That is a key point)
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You make it sound like something from the dark ages. I choose a champion, you choose a champion, whoever has got the strongest champion wins. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I hope the merits of the case still have an influence. That if your opponents case is crap, you don't need a sta
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But we do need to differentiate, because putting a piece of paper through a copier does not disable the owner from using the data on that sheet. Taking a photo of something does not steal it (well, unless it was a light partic
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Ok, the use of buzzwords is one thing, but your ignorance is entirely another. You are making a leap in logic, and against the
presumption of innocence. The RIAA has a history
those accusations have been shown to be wholly erroneous
is no
Stop Downloading Crap Music? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Stop Downloading Crap Music? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Stop Downloading Crap Music? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stop Downloading Crap Music? (Score:5, Interesting)
I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I sell the CD to a friend, artist doesn't get a cut but now I have another $9 to spend on another CD.
Compare this to only downloading.
I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I upload the music and half a million people get the song; artist gets nothing, I never get an additional cent to buy another CD.
Re:Stop Downloading Crap Music? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the existence of a second-hand market is part of what allows them to sell the CD for $9 (or whatever) in the first place -- people will spend more up front if they believe they can get some of it back later. The value of the used CD is factored in to the price of the new ones.
Going by your original logic, half a million people now have an extra $9+ to buy another CD. This would seem to be an improvement from the "available money" point-of-view.
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so I went into the pawn shop (Score:5, Insightful)
I wanted a used but serviceable electric drill, a simple plug in model, the old one I had had for years finally went TU. Picked one out, maybe half price of new, pay for it, go home, use it. Now, it's a black and decker, they got paid once for the drill, but nothing on the resale-should they be?
Anyway, the digital point is moot, the tech genie is out of the bottle now and in widespread use. It's our first replicator technology, folks thinking they can still charge a huge per unit markup for copies that quite literally at best only cost a few cents need to realise they have been put into the position of buggywhip makers and sellers. Sorry if that hurts their plans and all, but those are the facts. the future world is *not* going to be paying huge amounts of money for single copies of digital bits, no matter what those bits are. We still are some, but that is only from inertia. If that means 15/16th of digital bits creators go broke or have to switch to doing it for a hobby, that's life.
I'm a blue collar worker, as in hard labor worker for not a lot of money compared to the business and IT people here. I have already been told that my labor is now only worth a dollar an hour or something, because it can be reproduced in china for that sum, and society seems to think that is OK, that I have to "deal with it". It's rather an unpleasant FU from my fellow americans, but oh well, that's reality, I *have* to deal with it because there is no sympathy of note, nothing that is effective anyway, it's not really personal as another saying goes, it's just business. OK. I went from middle class to now pretty far down the pole, barely above poverty level. I get by, but that's it. Trying to do better, but working a few jobs doesn't leave a lot of time for much else.
So... you digital content creators.. you are no longer the elite either, you are at the tail end nadir of that point, and digital reproduction-replicator technology- makes your efforts quite a bit less valuable per unit then you think they should be. That's reality,. you'll have to adjust eventually. Single copies of your stuff are worth pennies, not dollars.
The handwriting, as they say, is on the wall. It won't happen overnight-cars didn't replace horses overnight either, chinese furniture didn't replace my furnbiture over night, but eventually it finally did, and with digital bits -it's happening. My only advice is adapt and change as fast as you can, prolonging it makes it worse. Jump at the high point, don't hang on except as a hobby. You may be making the big bucks now, and may for some more years, but eventually-you won't be, there's tens of millions more people a year entering the digital content "business", whether it is in the arts or sciences, and the ability to reproduce the work for pennies isn't going away. And you will NOT get much notice either, business and society doesn't work that way.
How many buggy whips have you bought lately? You have a much larger pool of workers every year all trying to sell stuff that is only worth pennies per unit, and it's beoming easier to make those copies, even cheaper than pennies, and the pool of creators is exploding. This is called a "bubble", a normal economic term.
The *only* reason you can still get dollars per unit now is inertia, but eventually that will go away, like alcohol prohibition. At first it was rigidly enforced, then eventually it was so universally ignored that they finally dropped the notion of trying to restrict technology, which after all is what booze making was, just simple chemistry. Simple chemistry and human nature doomed prohibition. Simple electronics and human nature will doom high dollars per unit digital copies of bits, laws or no laws.
You won't be able to restrict replicator technology, so the sooner you adapt to that reality and change course the faster you ca
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It reduces the number of secondhand copies by one, thus meaning that the next guy might not find one for sale and would end up buying a new copy. Legally, the number of copies floating around on the market is constant or decreasing (ass copies are destroyed) except when they do a pressing.
Using P2P for avoiding trying to rip a scratched CD does not change the number of copies floating around. It merely delays the amount of time before the number of copies decreases. Using P2P to download it outright ef
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How backwards! (Score:2)
Am I reading this right? (Score:2)
Purchasing the used CD and bittorrenting a playable copy of the music are separate transactions. That bittorrent is still not strictly legal, even with the used CD in his possession. Of course, the record labels wish that used CDs weren't legal; they too realize that neither artists nor record labels get cash from those transactions. So (since I'm not against used CDs) oh well...
BTW, d
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The downloading part is sketchy, but there is an effect from the secondary purchase. I would submit, however, that the value of the used CD is partly based on how beat up it is, so your friend should be purchasing CDs that are at least of sufficient quality to actually read, otherwise he's really
Another one bites the dust (Score:4, Informative)
I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that a couple hundred University of Ohio students will be receiving some pre-litigation notices in the mail sometime next week.
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Or is using the school's network the determinant factor? If I commit a crime on the school's streets or property, can I assume that I automatically should get "legal assistance" too?
Re:Another one bites the dust (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm by no means suggesting that the college has any obligation to provide any assistance, but it's certainly to their benefit in the long term.
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2. If the person is too cheap to buy a $99 iTunes download then what makes you think they're going to make an alumni contribution later on?
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How about because many students worry week-to-week about money for food, let alone for luxuries like DRMed 128kbps iTunes tracks?
And I know, I know, if music is a luxury, why don't students just do without? Well, my first year at University, I didn't live in halls and I couldn't afford DSL, so no high-speed downloading for me. And guess what? I didn't spend a dim
Existing donation base issues. (Score:2)
This link: http://www.ohio.edu/foundation/about.cfm [ohio.edu]
indicates a history of private sector donations going back to 1816. 2006 saw roughly 25 thousand people donate a total of $35 million USD. In 2004 the 'Bicentennial Campaign' concluded after bringing in 221 million USD.
How many successful alumni over the age of 50 are going to be clued
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The student isn't sued into oblivion. He gets an opportunity to settle out-of-court. To structure his payments.
OSU can't be expected to provide its students blanket protection against civil liability. It can't be expected to carve out an exception for the file sharer.
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Actually, there are a lot of universities that provide legal counsel for free to their students (unless, of course, you are suing the univerisity). At my undergraduate school, the attorneys would even represent you in court if you needed it. At my graduate school, even though the attorney would not represent the student officially, you could still get tons of free helpful legal advice to use
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Re:Another one bites the dust (Score:5, Informative)
Ohio University's office of Student Legal Services has done an excellent job -- far better than the SLS at many other schools -- of advising the students. In fact they affirmatively went out of the way to help them find counsel [blogspot.com] and to make them aware of their legal rights [studentlegalrights.org], and of resources upon which they could draw.
The problem is that under their charter, they're not authorized to litigate in federal court, and have to refer the students to outside counsel.
Now the university's counsel's office should be taking a more activist role than it has, as Mr. Hazelbaker eloquently pointed out in his letter [ilrweb.com] (pdf).
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yes, as the RIAA would never make blatantly false blanket accusations.
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And it's not just that Ohio sucks. Aye, the home of Blackwell, the black heart of voting fraud, poll taxes and electorate purges... If you live in Ohio, particularly on a state campus,
GET OUT
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
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In a greatly ironic and humorous twist of fate, apparently either the editors knew what he was talking about and didn't do any actual editing or slashcode automates a whole lot (and does it well) because all of the relate
Victims? (Score:5, Interesting)
It sounds to me like we're making a classic stupid military mistake: we keep on defending ourselves, at our homes, schools, and workplaces.
So let me ask: how do we take the fight to them? How do we start fscking over the RIAA / MPAA / Disney / NJ Turnpike Authority?
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So let me ask: how do we take the fight to them? How do we start fscking over the RIAA / MPAA / Disney / NJ Turnpike Authority?
Well, don't lump every Slashdot reader in with "we", as a lot of us don't download music and find the whole issue a big murky grey area best avoided..
But the way to fight back is to, well, fight back. The university has a law school, put it to u
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I don't think there's that much to worry about. RIAA/MPAA are fighting a battle that is very difficult to win in the face of rapidly reducing costs of information storage and dispersal and no means to prevent it.
It's not that much unlike Viet Nam or Iraq. Robert S McNamara's book "In Retrospect" talks about how much redundancy the North Vietnamese supply chain had, and
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I suspect "the People" would grow very tired of DRM, insane media prices, and ridiculous advertizing if not for the pirates making these things just tolerable enough.
Same with Microsoft piracy; I bet Bill loves the fact that most of Third World countries' student and engineers are exposed to Windows because once they get hired for a decent wage, Windows/Net++ is the only thing they will demand.
Re:Victims? (Score:5, Insightful)
The best way IMHO to really beat the RIAA is to not consume their products in any form. If DRM prevents you from making a backup copy, don't buy the CD, don't download, listen to something else. Then if their revenues drop, the execs can't point to the evil pirates as scapegoats to appease the shareholders.
To take a page from Oscar Wilde, "The only thing worse than being pirated, is not being pirated"
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Someone's memory only goes back about ~10 years [wikipedia.org], and completely ignores another 20. [wikipedia.org]
I know, I know, don't feed the trolls.
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Here, I'm going to use the word 'economics.' What I mean when I use this word is Mac doesn't have enough market share to turn away users. Feel free to dis my non-iPod mp3 player, there you've got enough. Elitism only works when you have to turn people away, like MIT, or nobility. You've taken a company that makes a decent product, I'll admit, but made poor decisions ea
Re:Victims? (Score:4, Funny)
How about personal responsibility (Score:5, Insightful)
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Reason 2: Because sometimes when hatred for the RIAA and reason get into a fight, reason gets its ass kicked.
Pick one, or both. Personally, I'm going with the second one.
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One can easily understand why the RIAA wants help from universities in facilitating its enforcement actions against students who download copyrighted music without paying for it. It is easier to litigate against change than to change with it. If the RIAA saw a better way to protect its existing business, it would not be threatening our students, forcing our librarians and administrators to be copyright police, and flooding our courts with lawsuits against relatively defenseless families without lawyers or ready means to pay. We can even understand the attraction of using lawsuits to shore up an aging business model rather than engaging with disruptive technologies and the risks that new business models entail.
But mere understanding is no reason for a university to voluntarily assist the RIAA with its threatening and abusive tactics. Instead, we should be assisting our students both by explaining the law and by resisting the subpoenas that the RIAA serves upon us. We should be deploying our clinical legal student training programs to defend our targeted students. We should be lobbying Congress for a roll back of the draconian copyright law that the copyright industry has forced upon us. Intellectual property can be efficient when its boundaries are relatively self-evident.
Perhaps Ohio doesn't have a law school that would enable students to defend other students. Perhaps Ohio just doesn't give a shit. Perhaps Ohio is complicit. Take your pick.
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They have recently changed their policy about how to deal with student downloading. So "complicit" is more likely than "apathetic."
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Ohio University owes a duty to its students to force the RIAA to make such a showing before it releases any information.
In 2004 the RIAA was forbidden by a federal court to jo
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But at the same time, I can't help but feel that the RIAA is just as bad. They're the ones pushing for help from the government to ensure profit rather than spend their own time and money to defend their product.
So everybody is looking for the nanny state to help them. The RIAA just has better lobbyists than the rest of us.
It's Ohio University (Score:5, Informative)
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The funny thing is that we can blame this one not only on the editors but also on the story submitter who apparently didn't read the actual news stories himself (and calls it "Univerity of Ohio" in his own site which, by the way, he uses as one of the links in his story).
It may sound quaint... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, the lawsuits are a bunch of bull, and yes, the RIAA is a bunch of thugs. But I have no doubt that the university told people that file sharing is a good way to get sued, and they went ahead and did it anyway. I have no sympathy for these people. As unfair as it is, they should suffer some consequences to what they did. Most anyone knows that file sharing can make you the target of a lawsuit, but most believe that it won't be them. If you think it is unfair, then actually get up and move to somewhere where it isn't considered illegal. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the students did it because they wanted free music, not because they somehow believed they were sticking it to the man.
If you want to change the situation, downloading files and trying to get sued isn't going to fix anything. Donate to EFF, move near the RIAA headquarters and intimidate them directly, or some other more direct means would be more effective.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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The cut-off date for kindergarten in most places is October 1st. Some places it is November 1st. You must be five by those dates to enroll that year. The definition of adult is 18 and over. Most students are 18 by the time they enroll in college, or within a month or so. So, ye
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The university shouldn't protect anybody from the "dangers of the net," otherwise that would give them license to censor which is not conducive to the open learning environment they try to promote. Should the university ban P2P services to "protect" the students? No, the students are given all the tools,
"But they're just kids!" (Score:2)
First, you argue that the university is supposed to "protect their students from the dangers of the net." How much protection do they have to offer? If a student gets phished, should they refund their money? Should the university police networked computers and remove malware for them? Can you show me where in the Ohio University's computer policy they promise to do this? And since when does "protecting" students involve spending thousands of dollars in legal fees for something that
Re:It may sound quaint... (Score:5, Funny)
> but most believe that it won't be them. If you think it is unfair, then actually get up and move to somewhere where it isn't considered illegal.
As unfair as it is, they should suffer some consequences to what they did. Most anyone knows that [practising homosexuality] can make you the target of [the death penalty in Iran], but most believe that it won't be them. If you think it is unfair, then actually get up and move to somewhere where it isn't considered illegal. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the [homosexuals] did it because they wanted [to have homosexual sex], not because they somehow believed they were sticking it to the man.
As unfair as it is, they should suffer some consequences to what they did. Most anyone knows that [taking drugs] can make you the target of [the death penalty in Thailand], but most believe that it won't be them. If you think it is unfair, then actually get up and move to somewhere where it isn't considered illegal. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the [drug users] did it because they wanted [to take drugs], not because they somehow believed they were sticking it to the man.
As unfair as it is, they should suffer some consequences to what they did. Most anyone knows that [not wearing religiously sanctioned clothing] can make you the target of a [being raped with no legal recourse in more than one Middle Eastern country], but most believe that it won't be them. If you think it is unfair, then actually get up and move to somewhere where it [won't result in you being raped with no legal recourse]. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the [women] did it because they wanted [to wear clothing that was not religiously sanctioned], not because they somehow believed they were sticking it to the man.
Nice try. (Score:3, Insightful)
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> for breaking [mostly unfair] laws.
You're quite right! My analogy is flawed because it isn't exactly the same situation as the situation it attempts to describe.
To be serious, if you hold "People who suffer consequence Y deserve no pity because they performed action X while knowing about consequence Y" to be true, it does
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The students may not be surprised that they're getting sued, but it's still unjust. The law is wrong.
Re:It may sound quaint... (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't realize there was a difference... >.>
true if.. (Score:2)
Don't give them your money then (Score:4, Insightful)
Interesting - "abandons" (Score:3, Insightful)
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tough love =/= over the top punishment (Score:2)
Ohio University Center for Student Legal services. Their tuition pays for it. My university has one too. Most do.
Let's take your logic to the next level, shall? Hypothetical (ok, not hypothetical. It's like this some places) situation: When you steal a piece of bread your hand is cut off, as are the hands of all theives. Of course, you knew the law ahead of time but you did it anyway, fine. Unjust law? How about if the law is that everyone who steals something is killed
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As for protecting the student directory information, they actually have all of that available online (which is nice if you're looking for someone that you used to go to school with because a lot of us keep at least our e
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And here I thought institutions of higher learning were responsible for standing up against unjust practices by the government and corporations.
Don't you think that is the individual's responsibility? I seem to remember students in the US protesting against the Vietnam war, in China students protesting against government oppression.
Now... We have US students whining about being caught drinking under age and infringing someone's (thousands of people's) copyright.
You see, there's a vital fact that seems to escape many people these days...
Freedom is responsibility. Freedom and responsibility are the same thing. For every responsibility you give to so
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Aren't people responsible for their own actions these days?
Oh shit, I wet myself laughing so hard. "Responsible"? WTF does that even mean? The point isn't what the students have done, it's that the RIAA is ignoring legal procedure and rules of evidence to unfairly bully these people. It doesn't matter if they are guilty or not, they deserve a fair hearing. Not the perversion of justice that the RIAA dollars have wrought.
I honestly hope I get caught. I would love to let my lawyer get medieval on those scumbags
Uhh... its OHIO UNIVERSITY (Score:2)
$ wins every time (Score:2)
There are plenty of other students in line to get in.
Trent Reznor says it all (Score:2, Informative)
Your money isn't going to the artists damn it. It never has and it never will. I think I have given up all hope for this damn country. Anyone know any islands up for sale?
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Counter-offense: disbarment? (Score:2)
It seems to me that the RIAA's attorneys are guilty of many gross ethics violations. Why should concerned parties not go after the RIAA attorneys -- seeking their disbarment?
If there were a fund for financing such, I would contribute.
fwiw
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Good Move! (Score:2)
1) Congress does not have to grant copyright protection.
2) If they do grant protection, it has to be for a limited time.
3) One hour is a limited time.
4) Sharing knowledge and culture is an inalienable right.
Some compulsive thoughts... (Score:2, Insightful)
Counsel's Office, Not Student Legal Services (Score:4, Informative)
The Student Legal Services office at OU, which acts as a legal adviser and representative for the students, has worked very hard to make the students aware of their rights and to help them find counsel. Unfortunately SLS's charter does not authorize it to represent the students in federal court, so it must try to obtain outside referrals for them.
It is the university's counsel's office to which Mr. Hazelbacker's letter is addressed.
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It's still copying.
Do you think the Riaa cares if you copy a 1/4 of the song?
Thanks for your contribution , dumbass!
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> likened to perhaps downloading a snippet of a song. Depending on how you use that snippet, it may be covered by fair use. Get your analogies straight.
> Oh, wait...this is Slashdot. Nevermind...let fly with the inane analogies!
Actually, IIRC, for things like anthologies of poems and short stories, you are permitted to copy one complete story or poem, at least in un
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I suggest you put the computer down for a while and go spend some quality time with a dictionary.
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A more viable defence is that you were hacked/virus/trojaned. Since this happens every day it makes sense..
Re:What is the RIAA accomplishing? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the point. At the least, they can make it more difficult for pirates to rip artists off.
Why do you "fucking hate" a company legally protecting the rights of its represented artists? We go after stolen GPL code violations all the time here on Slashdot. But piracy of music artists, game developers (like John Carmack at id), movie studios, and so on is okey-dokey?
Re: (Score:2)
It's also not the university's job to save the RIAA thousands of dollars by handing over students' personal information that the RIAA has not followed proper legal process to obtain. When the RIAA can provide evidence that can actually survive scrutiny in court, and goes through the correct and accepted procedures to serve a correct and proper subpoena, then I'll change my mind.
It's not about the kids copying music - it's about t