How the RIAA Targets Campus Copyright Violators 280
jyosim writes "The Chronicle of Higher Ed got a briefing at RIAA headquarters on how the group catches pirates. They just use LimeWire and other software that pirates use, except that they've set up scripts to search for songs, grab IP numbers, and send out notices to college officials. They claim they don't target specific colleges, though many feel that they do."
Target selection (Score:3, Interesting)
Change LimeWire EULA now! (Score:5, Interesting)
Legality of MediaSentry (Score:5, Interesting)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/11/1427257 [slashdot.org]
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/10/1542222 [slashdot.org]
Could they not do the same with torrents? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Maybe capitalism really does promote darwanism (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the real reason behind these suits. They can't possibly be afraid you'll hear top 40 crap, because if they did they wouldn't let the radio (easily sampled to better than iTunes or MP3 quality) play them.
It isn't Britney they want to keep out of your ears, it's the indies. Note they don't say "illegal downloads" except when the context infers that all downloads are illegal? Their aim, mostly met, it to make you think they do indeed have a monopoly (or rather, cartel) and that all music is RIAA music. it worked on you, didn't it?
"Piracy" isn't hurting their sales and they know it. The indies (and the gasoline and food companies) are eating their lunch. Most of us have only so many dollars to spend. If I buy four $5 CDs from the band that plays at the bar (professionally recorded and duplicated, with art and packaging) that's twenty dollars I don't have to buy an RIAA CD.
Their only hope for survival is to kill the internet. Good luck with that.
Time to do a counter-sting (Score:2, Interesting)
Create an audio file with the same name as a popular song, have the first 7-8 seconds or whatever is legal be the same as the song, followed by an oral essay that critiques the song.
Now, when they sue, not only will you have a bulletproof argument that the suit is without merit, you will have a good counter-suit on the grounds that they are trying to suppress legitimate free speech.
At the very least, this will force the RIAA to listen to songs before filing suit.
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Maybe capitalism really does promote darwanism (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How (Score:3, Interesting)
Why The RIAA Has No Case (Score:5, Interesting)
This is why the RIAA has no legal case, and why they must resort to bluffs, threats, extortion, smoke, mirrors, and press releases.
The song file has to be downloaded by another unauthorized person (RIAA investigators don't count) for it to be infringement. The RIAA itself admits here that they have no way of knowing if anybody else has ever downloaded this song. To properly win in court they have to convince judges and/or juries that despite this complete lack of proof that they were infringed anyway.
It's all the Big Lie on their part.
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:2, Interesting)
A humorous solution (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Figure out what music is currently quite popular.
2) Make your own covers of it without instruments. Sing both the lyrics and the melody with interpretive musicianship. The worse it sounds, the better.
3) Host as the file name.
4) ????
5) Waste their time!
IANAL but I don't think you could get in trouble for posting fake songs up. Technically, you could claim you're helping fight piracy while making Mediasentry's job harder. I imagine the in worst case they ask you to cease and desist. Perhaps someone more versed in law can say if this is valid.
Another option could be to simply use the band's name and make up fake songs with similar names to original songs with fictitious lyrics. This would replace step 2. Granted I believe they are solely looking for song titles.
Ben Folds - Rocking the Penguin
Beastie Boys - Ubuntu in Effect
Whitney Houston - OSX will save the day
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:3, Interesting)
Doesn't matter, though. That's not how they're using LimeWire (or other P2P clients), as the GP would've known if he'd RFTA.
They're not making the music available; they're using the client to search for others who are making the music available.
Harvard anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
I seem to recall reading somewhere that Harvard has never been hit with one of these RIAA money grabs. Most probable reason being that there is enough talent there to rip the RIAA to tiny ribbon sized shreds in front of the judge, which would pretty much end their extortion racket.
So, does that still hold true? Anybody at Harvard ever been hit with one of these?
Make your own song (Score:3, Interesting)
2) rename it as a popular song: eg. Madonna - 4 Minutes
3) they download it after it fails hash check
4) sue them for copyright infringement
5) ?
6) Profit!
Re:Why The RIAA Has No Case (Score:2, Interesting)
Entrap them right back. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Maybe capitalism really does promote darwanism (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree. In addition, this is one big reason why their "lost sales" calculations are huge stinking loads of bull manure. The RIAA figures that 1 song downloaded (regardless of the legality of the download) equals one sale not made which means that much revenue not put in their pockets. You could easily use the same reasoning to prove that Indie labels cost the record labels money. Or that food store sales cost the record companies money. Or that oil companies cost the record companies money.
Hey, there's an idea. Pit the Big Oil companies against the Big Record Companies/RIAA. Two Companies Enter! One leaves! We won't really be cheering for a winner so much as cheering for one of the companies to be beaten to a pulp.
college safety and reviews (Score:3, Interesting)
Although some kids may need to reign in their activities, the RIAA methods' technological and litigation basis are unsound and dangerous. RIAA and their overlords need to be made recipocally accountable with the colleges taking more responsibility too.
Deception? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA, in so far as they are also "making available", are making available with no clear demarcation of copyright, further complicating their liability well beyond mere "entrapment". So all those downloads from RIAA hosted files are perfectly legal. Making available man_on_the_moon.mp3 is no different than making available kennedy_moon_speech.mp3 whilst sneaking in a secretly copyrighted song into a title of a public domain presidential speech about putting a man on the moon.
Could you imagine the copyright liability which could be created if you put your own copyrighted files into titles of public domain works and then sued everybody who downloaded or viewed those files? You could get rich off the RIAA by putting your own homemade songs into file titles the RIAA deep packet inspects, by definition copies and views, as they check to see whether the files are copyrighted, and sue for statutory copyright damages. It would be absolutely no different then suing everybody who clicked on or linked to your webpage.
In fact if you download and upload every single file on the internet and "deep packet inspect" those files by viewing or listening to them, you are doing exactly what the RIAA is doing and clamoring to be done with "deep packet inspection" software. It's no different if it done automatically by a program or manually by individual eyes and ears.
So I was correct all along, the RIAA is indeed downloading and "deep packet inspecting" based on file titles alone, even attempting to submit "evidence" of screenshots of file titles. No doubt the RIAA is legally liable for $100s of BILLIONS for mistaken inspection and downloading of content that is not the copyright of RIAA members. If anybody were to subpoena the RIAA download and deep packet inspection records in a countersuit, those record companies will be BANKRUPT from distributing consumer copyrighted parodies and commentaries!
All hail the the arrival of the Era of the Copyright Troll! Time to parody the hell out of everything that is copyrighted, and get paid outrageous legal sums for doing so! You will soon find that the RIAA is the biggest P2P "pirate" in the world (and they have tens of billions in assets -- go get your piece!).
What, NEVER? No. NEVER! Well, hardly ever. (Score:4, Interesting)
In other words, they do not engage in unauthorized downloading and copyright infringement. Except when they do. Because they what sounds to them like a really good rationalization for their behavior.
Which is exactly what their victims do.
If the RIAA being straight arrows, they'd forego the downloading in those "rare" cases. Why is it so important to nail these "rare" that they will compromise their own principles?
Perhaps, if the truth were known, those "rare" cases aren't really all that rare.
Re:Harvard anyone? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:RIAA "making available" (Score:3, Interesting)
Recent court cases indicate that "making available" is not against the copyright law. The **AA would certainly like that to be the case, so they and they alone are able to "make available" and nobody else. To violate copyright, there has to be an actual copy made by someone.
Re:Harvard anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Piracy quite rampant just like any other university, and the students have rarely been served although it does happen.
I agree that they figure high-profile university lawsuits are bad publicity, and Harvard does have many young lawyers anxious for a big win, and will not be easily intimidated, which is half of what the RIAA game is about.
Several of the Harvard students I know have a method of sharing files via a VPN type construct (wasn't really heavily encrypted though, only member-authenticated IIRC), protected from the RIAA / internet. If several hundred people share their music, that is quite a collection. These "clubs" exist, and are very hard to find.
Re:Harvard anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
going lawsuit happy on the alma mater isn't usually looked upon to well. especially when on avarage harvard grads are a lot more likely to spend a whole lot more on MAFIAA products than the "average" UT grad. key word average. Plenty of great students and some great departments at UT, I may go there for grad work but as a whole? Although I do realize that UT Austin has one of the largest endowments (ifnot larget) for a public school.
but then again its not whats true as much as what "popular stereotypical belief" is.