Slashdot Mirror

It makes sense. The RIAA already looks bad. It's not news to anyone. But, until now, they've looked powerless to stop file sharing.

Hmmm. Until now, they've looked powerless to stop file sharing, even when they sued a college kid, Jesse Jordan, and he agreed to give them his life savings ($12,000)? I still think that story is much better ammo for the RIAA. Supposedly, he wasn't even sharing files, only running a search engine for his university network. Apparently, this story has the added benefit of being undeniably true, unless you think his personal website is an RIAA front. I sure hope it isn't, since Jesse Jordan's already received a little over $12,000 in donations, and I'd hate to see those funds going back into the RIAA's coffers. But, considering he and his father have interviewed on CNN, it's probably a true story.

Okay, let's suppose the "RIAA sues 12-year old music pirate" story is wholly untrue. I don't think so, but anything's possible. Or, maybe the RIAA really sued a 12-year old girl, but they made up the part about the $2000 settlement; maybe the family doesn't have to pay anything. This scenario is much more likely.

It still makes them look bad. Before this story broke, we knew that the RIAA was suing hundreds of American citizens for downloading music. We knew that at least one college kid gave up his life savings rather than fighting the RIAA in court. We've all seen the RIAA's anti-music piracy propaganda spots on TV. Now you're telling me the next logical step is to beat up on a 12-year old girl living with her single mom in a housing project?

1) To strike "fear and awe" into the hearts of downloaders. "Wow! They sued a 12 year old! They wouldn't hesitate to sue my ass."
You imply that, in order to scare us, the RIAA wants us to believe they would intentionally sue a 12-year old girl. Then, when asked if the RIAA knew of the girl's age, why does the RIAA spokesperson say they have no personal information on those who are being sued? They make it sound like it they didn't mean to sue a 12-year old. By your theory, they should be claiming the opposite: that they fully intend to pursue all "music pirates", regardless of age, class, income, etc. If they really wanted to look like hardasses, wouldn't they say something like: "We don't care if it's a 12-year old girl or a 90-year old grandmother, we'll sue anyone who steals our intellectual property. Theft is theft, regardless of the perpetrator's age."

"Copyright law in this country is totally broken. It needs to be totally scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. Want a clear picture read Digital Copyright by Jessica Litman .

Meanwhile continue to fight the borg.."
Bill Evans
founder boycott-riaa.com
( It should be rebuilt from the ground up.)

Is this the Bill Evans you ask about RIAA etc?

Because most of the actual pirates are offshore and effectively immune to prosecution by the RIAA, while slamming a couple of college kids provides (to their minds) an object lesson to discourage P2P among their primary market, though in some cases it's backfired.

I'm not trying to troll... I just want to make sure he did something worthy.

Jesse Jordan wrote a search engine, registered a cool domain name, then used the site to clearly document his fight. To top it all off, he cut off donations when he made back the $12k, and implores us to send our donations to...

The other guy, Daniel Peng. His website is just a single page -- tiny by comparison. But he comes highly recommended, by Slashdot and the afore-mentioned Jordan.

Other than that, can y'all remind me why I should support Peng?

By the way, I'd ask Paypal folks to please contribute more than a buck. Paypal fees (30c + 2.9%) will turn your $1 contribution into a 67c contribution, but he'll get about $4.55 if you give $5.

Link

-Lucas

...you are prohibited from trading/transmitting/etc/etc/ad nauseum any sort of copyrighted works via your phynd service...

He isn't.

The ChewPlastic Campus Search Engine is currently available to the public as a demonstration of the site as it was. NOTE: The files listed through the results on this site are fictitious - they DO NOT EXIST. This means that you cannot download them because they are fake computers on a fake network. While there is a small assortment of files listed in the search engine, they are not meant to represent the actual assortment of files available during the Search Engine's operation.

In the ultimate move of spite, take the $13 the RIAA is settling with and give it back to Jesse Jordan, the student who's life savings was taken by the RIAA in a "symbolic move." It's his money, we're just giving it back to him.

Help a brother out!
paypal a couple of bucks his way. Or at least DO NOT BUY ANY CDS! This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.

There is no emoticon for what I am feeling!

He is still fighting. He is putting the search engine back up and defying the RIAA as soon as he is sure he is legally protected. We are all threatened by this kind of behavior by large corporations, so we should try to support the individuals that have been singled out. This could easily have been you that is being sued. If you download music using any technology, you are trackable, and the RIAA may one day randomly select you for prosecution. Don't say it can't happen, because they have already privately messaged thousands of music traders. This means that they can find you, and they can prosecute you. We need to help the people who are being prosecuted, and we all need to join together to make sure that even though the RIAA temporarily shuts down music finding services such as Phynd, we will all join together to pay their settlements and continue on the way we were, legally.

Yep, he's paying out of his own pocket, his parents aren't paying anything. Help him out by going to the site and donating. chewplastic.com

Sorry, that was a bit of insider information. The RIAA used bots to crawl the Phynd service (which will soon be up at phynd.chewplastic.com) and they download a shitload of files, some of which were by artists that aren't a part of the RIAA. Shhh...don't tell anyone.

There's a paypal link on his website.

Help Jesse pay the $12,000. Go to Chewplastic.com and click the "contribute via paypal" link that's at the top of the page right now. Fuck the RIAA.

I just wanted to let all /.ers know that one of the defendents in this case, Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer has set up a furom for discussion of the lawsuit and whatever else. Find it at http://www.chewplastic.com/bb

I just wanted to let all /.ers know that one of the defendents in this case, Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer has set up a furom for discussion of the lawsuit and whatever else. Find it at http://www.chewplastic.com/bb

However, one network searching site run by an RPI club is still alive and well.

Interestingly enough, network sharing has been way down this year. During my freshman year I could 'phynd' anything I wanted, but now in my junior year there only seems to be a handleful of popular divx movies and most mainstream mp3 albums. Certainly not the selection that Kazaa offers.