The Recording Industry's Massive Crackdown on College Students
On College Campuses Nationwide, the RIAA is Going After Every Student Accused of Illegal Downloading with a Fervor Not Seen Since the Salem Witchunts
Since March of 2006, there have been more than 1600 "pre-litigation" letters sent to a vast number of college campuses nationwide requesting that the college's board of education pass on these threatening letters from the RIAA to the guilty student's dorm rooms, no matter how many students are actually living in those rooms. This effort is nothing less than a fear campaign designed to strike terror into the heart of everybody who is in contact with the letter's legal documentation. Since there probably is more than just that one person in a dorm room that could be making illegal downloads, how does the RIAA distinguish between computer users? Lawyers for the RIAA state that they can verify that all of these cases, the accused student's computer, user name and password were traced directly to the illegal downloads represented in all of the individual lawsuits that are going to court currently. Is this a true statement?
The problem is we will never find out because none of these cases will ever wind up in federal courts, seeing as how most of these students' lawyers are scared of taking these cases to trial. They settle out of court for $3000- $5000 just so the college students can get back to doing what they are supposed to be doing in college: studying. This is a scare tactic that seems to be working for the RIAA, and they are not going to stop this horrible activity any time soon so long as it continues to send the same message to every college student currently in school: We don't care who you are. We will find your illegal downloads and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law!
Meanwhile the statistics show that this mean-spirited lawsuit mentality is having the reverse effect on illegal downloading. Peer-to-peer song sharing has grown significantly, from 5.5 million users a month in 2003 to over 9.3 million in 2006, the exact time frame that the RIAA first started their lawsuit campaign, which has resulted in 18,000 lawsuits nationwide.
The RIAA has responded to all the negative press they are getting by saying that they have to go to these extreme measures because the college students are responsible for a disproportionate amount of illegal file sharing activities. The RIAA actually has stated in the past that since the college universities have been slow to take action in these matters, the RIAA have no choice but to sue the guilty students for as much money as possible. The RIAA are now in the process of sending out letters to the college campuses that list IP addresses of computers the organization claim have been used in the illegal file sharing cases that they are working on, bypassing the lawsuit altogether if the student associated with the specific illegal downloads in question states that he will indeed pay a big fine.
The RIAA even has a website set up so the student can go to it and pay online to avoid any lawsuit he might have to face if he does not agree to pay the $3000- $5000 fee. The top five college campuses that have been hit with this new letter campaign specifying exact IP addresses of computers that have found complicit in illegal activities are:
1. Ohio University
2. Purdue University
3. University of Nebraska
4. University of Tennessee
5. University of South Carolina
So if you happen to be a student at one of these fine campuses, you can look forward to getting a nice letter from the RIAA accusing you of the horrible act of illegal file sharing, and you will have to add the more than $3,000 penalty fee to your already ballooning student loan payments. Who says there is justice in America?
Published by Rob Mead
I am a freelance writer living in the Las Vegas area and I write for many high-tech audio/video component websites such as Home Entertainment and SoundStageAV.com on a regular basis. View profile
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13 Comments
Post a Commentthe time, energy, money, and wholehearted effort that goes into a recording should never, ever be taken away from that artist. i feel a little less sorry for people like britney spears who rely on their popularity to make money. but for real musicians, many of them tried very hard for many years of no success to even be heard. how frustrating it must be to finally get there, only to have their songs stolen. why would we continue illegal downloading when the lawyers are out there hungry for money, and there are alternatives like itunes that could get us the songs we wanted, cheap, and save us the trouble of lawsuits or huge settlement fees? although i feel no sympathy for the lawyers and the RIAA, the college students were well aware of the risk they were taking, or they should have been. i'm not saying they deserve $3,000 fines, but the possibility was there and they made their decisions anyway.
Great article, glad you brought it to light. Makes me wonder how much of the money they are trying to extorte from these students actually go to the recording artist, and how much goes into the pockets of the RIAA lawyers. Do they post any statistics on that number?
from my musician friends, I understand that you make more money touring than per CD b/c of paying back studio fees, distribution fees, promotion fees, etc. Some friends don't mind a song or two download because it promotes the music as a whole.
There are always two sides to every story.I can understand both sides. Artists and Record Companys spend and invest lots of money in the studio recording,writing,tours are also alot of overhead cost.By downloading songs,sometimes entire CD's,the Artists we love and the Record Companys are losing money big time.But I have a solution, why don't they set up a downloading site (Hey if ya can't beat them join them) charge a fair price for people to join a small amt. a year and offer a few downloads free a year or free downloads if you refer 2 friends.Stuff like that this way it's a win, win for all everyone is happy & nobody gets cheated. What do you think?
I think this is all a load of S! 3000 dollars is krazy. If i dint DL than I would pay for music so it's not like there are loozing money on me!
The RIAA is so behind the times, now they are running to catch up. The only way they can afford to catch up is to sue people out the wazoo for songs that most people forget about after a few years. They could have, and should have,handled this sooo much better. With this kind of extortion it's a wonder lightning doesn't strike when they get after kids for "stealing."
As a music journalist, I have to make this comment: Maybe the tactics that record labels take to project what artists produce is extreme. It's also pretty stupid that labels don't always have direct paid download and you have to buy a CD to make them happy. However, what the public doesn't seem to get is the reason why music piracy is so dangerous to the industry is because of what it does to the artist. Musicians, unless they have an alternative income (like selling perfume ala Britney Spears, Marilyn Manson, etc, etc, etc) actually make much LESS money than the general public thinks. Musicians really make squat, and a couple of grand of compensation doesn't even DENT the loss of royalties that occur when music is stolen. How do you expect even recording costs and venue fees to get paid, alone, when less money than expected is being pulled in because so-called "fans" aren't helping their favorite bands out? I think $1.99 a song is a fine idea. If bands pooled negotiations wit
great article about an important topic!
Great article. I read one about a local mother who had to pay around $30,000 b/c her KIDS were downloading music. Talk about a load of crap!
Funny thing is, I don't think the majority of musical artists are against downloading b/c they know it gets them known and gets their music out to people who may have never heard of them otherwise. I always thought if you reallllllly liked an artist, you would pay for it by going to concerts, buying t-shirts, etc, so downloading a few songs isn't that big of a deal. Luckily though, my husband and I removed all this software a few years back b/c "the fear" is out there.
I read in a newspaper somewhere that kids are being charged as much as $7 per song they downloaded, even songs that were never hits, or old showtunes from the 80s. There's no way the industry is losing that much money from those songs - some kids are taking the boot for the loss caused by the general public. Anyway, why is it that we're paying more attention to illegal downloading than illegal immigration? Our college kids are trying to better their futures, not take a free ride on our public healthcare. Why should they be punished more harshly?