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RIAA Apologizes for Incorrect Infringement Notice
theradixhunter writes "News.com is reporting that the RIAA has apologized to the Pennsylvania State University for sending a threatening letter making an incorrect allegations of copyright violations. It appears that the automated system that the RIAA uses picked the term "Usher" and the extenstion ".mp3" on an FTP site hosting the work of Professor Emeritus Peter Usher and falsely assumed that the files were songs by the musician Usher. The university accepted the apology saying "that this was an honest mistake by the recording industry" and Spokesman Tysen Kendig said Penn State "remains committed to working closely with the RIAA"."
I'd be happy if the RIAA deleted every file in the world containing the strings 'Usher' and 'mp3'. Sure, there could be innocent casualties, but think of the lives that would be saved...
finally, a public apology. Didn't this happen a while back when some child got in trouble for having a Word document and the line "Harry Potter" was found.
.smell my feet.
Is the RIAA going to pay for the legal fees the university incurred? Or the time they could have used to educate their students rather than going on a wild goose chase? I rather doubt it.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
RIAA will never win. they don't stand a chance. move with times. that's all i can say
Hmm.. maybe skip the lottery tickets this time?
Shouldn't the RIAA be liable for making such false accusations?
Perhaps I should create a work of art called JPG, and then start sending out threatening letters to any site that may have "JPG" on it...
Once again, I feel it's appropriate to slam MediaForce and their gang of sleazebag nerds that write the software that does this.
For shame....
I have nothing better to do while waiting for a kernel to compile, so...
I find it to be the usual government style of action: act first, apologize later. They send out threat form letters to anyone who might be violating their stupid-*** laws, and then when they find they're wrong, they throw out a whoops, and they're done. There is something very wrong with that picture.
(-:Stephonovich:-)
"Who needs reincarnation when we've got parallel universes?" -Me
See? we at the RIAA are really decent people, if you only gave us a chance. We are acting in everyone's best interests. If anyone would like to spearhead our Australian campaign, feel free to drop David a line and tell us your opinions on IP
dmiller@iinet.net.au
Why should the RIAA check their "sources"? They're making a lot of money/press by blackmail and coercion.
Just a matter of time before they pick on the wrong people.
It would be interesting to see how many time the RIAA systems access servers with restricted use policies: "Ve haf found der pirate!!!!" "No, you've trespassed on the private server of esquires Anastacia Lopez and Santana Aguilera of the law firm that prosecuted the tobacco settlement. Pay up."
Actually i posted it anonymously. I don't like those things modding me down b4 i think up a real comment around 2 minutes later (the /. time limit). (which halted me from getting the 2nd comment as well).
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
That makes it what, roughly a billion or so to go until they've atoned for stifling creativity and ruining music? Anyway, what kind of company would use software that sends out cease and desist letters automatically? Shouldn't there be at least SOME human intervention? That way, someone could say, "Hey, I've never heard of this Professor Usher. Did we just sign him? Maybe we should look into this. Or at least, I dunno...listen to the file first?"
Just like that other time when OpenOffice.org got nailed for distributing their own software.
Yup, that's their mentality: Guilty until proven innocent.
Please direct all bug reports to
...because we know how he accepts apologies!
"We have withdrawn, and apologize for, the DMCA notice that had been sent to Penn State University in error. In order to safeguard against errors like this one, we have individuals look at each and every notice we send out. In this particular instance, a temp employee made a mistake and did not follow RIAA's established protocol, and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused. We are currently reviewing any other notices this temp may have sent."
I think by "temp employee," they mean to say the person responsible is now fired. Doesn't sound like the RIAA really took responsibility for the incident either, but rather placed the blame on John Doe.
Penn acted as spineless morons.
They should have slapped the RIAA fools with a libel lawsuit and requested an injunction to keep RIAA away from their computers forever or else. Then, only then, settled out of court if needed.
You can't even trust academia to defend their own these days. Sheesh.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
ftp://vatican.com/madonna/Prayers_1.mp3
be funny if they replaced it with the swearing maddona mp3
Worst apology ever.
Fact - My first name is Rock (R - o - c - k)(Yes that's what my parents choose)
Fact - I'm in the Radio business
Fact - I have lots of Mp3's named rockxx.mp3 on my computers (where xx is a number)
I can't imagine the drool that would be produced by the RIAA if they were to ever come across my hard drive. I'm sure they would think "Pay-Dirt!!" When in actuality it's just another voice in the crowded radio dial.
I'll have to warn my good buddy John L. Zeppelin to be on the lookout for the RIAA piranha. (His real name too!)
It appears that the automated system that the RIAA uses picked the term "Usher" and the extension ".mp3" on an FTP site...
.mp3 extension. Just wait for the false positives to show up in your mailbox...
Perhaps we should start something like what went on with e-mails when ECHELON went public. Host a bunch of text files with the names of popular songs with the
-Tolerate my intolerance
The RIAA suing a professor for violating the copyright of a band named Usher, for which they should be getting sued to death by the heirs of Edgar Allen Poe.
Ahem, no matter what I predict we will see the Fall of the House of Usher...
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
How about removing files where the filename contains "any Spear"....
I too would think twice if someone assassinated me.
The music industry is Doomed. When you receive a lethal wound, you may still still linger for awhile and even twitch after you're dead. Either way, it's history. Don't believe me?
"It's written on the studio wall!"
Salesmen.
I suggest you read Slashdot
how insulting is that.. this has become way out of hand. we need to stop the media lobby's now.
--
|-_-| . o O ( bEef!)
Mmmm... what if I have a file named with a trade mark?
What if I am working in a project that somewhat stains the owner of the trademark reputation? (i.e. a bad review of statistic)
This is bad. I could be sued if the filename is THAT important... Right?
Jeez...
On that note, maybe we should start putting files called "this_is_not_britney_spears_hit_me_baby_one_more_t ime.txt.mp3" files on public ftp servers..
That aside, is there any sort of legal problem with the RIAA randomly searching FTP sites and logging in to them searching through directories for files? Is this unauthorized access if there is an MOTD that states they are not allowed to access it?
And it would also appear that simply using a phony filename extension will be enough to fool the "automated system." From now on, I and all my partners in tune trading criminal activities will use .RIAA to denote classic .mp3, and .MPAA instead of .mpg or .mpeg, but only on even numbered days. Other times we'll switch 'em around. That oughta hold 'em off for a while.
Oops! Did I just divulge a circumvention technique? Will I be liable for prosecution under DMCA or US-PATRIOT or some other silly-ass law?
.nosig
Get this: The department has on its faculty a professor emeritus named Peter Usher whose work on radio-selected quasars the FTP site hosted. The site also had a copy of an a capella song performed by astronomers about the Swift gamma ray satellite, which Penn State helped to design.
That kind of search could only be termed "shotgun".
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
is there any database of RIAA server IP's or their minions? Just on general principles I would like to block them all. Their actions are damn close to illegal search and seizure, at least IMHO.
props to the RIAA for doing the right thing... for once.
ironically, there is a grain of truth in your proposal to assassinate executives. It could even be utilitarian to eliminate malevolent corporate actors, kind of like a Darkman or Robin Hood figure; there's something quite satisfying about an underdog who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, isn't there?
I suspect the anti-globalism crowd (which probably correlates with your view) is a big reason that "Executive Protection" is now a huge industry-- and why not?
Yea, it's real easy to make false and unsubstantiatable allegations first, then apologize if someone their false when someone provides proof. That's alot easier and cheaper than actually verifying the validity of the accusation first. The RIAA doesn't give a flying fuck that this costs individuals and universities thousands of dollars. Not their concern -- after all, in the US, you're free to make false and ludicrous accusations against anyone without any proof.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
I have a friend named Billy G. Metallica-Sucks.
Ok maybe not. I don't really have any friends.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I wouldn't say the industry is doomed, it's the conservative mind of the people behind the organizations. It just happens to much nowadays that people yell "The RIAA/MPAA sucks!" while they really mean: "The opinions of the minds behind the RIAA/MPAA suck goat ass!". That's what bothers me...
Do you honestly think you could win agianst them? Do you even think it would get to trial before you were bankrupted? Do you really have the time to fight that battle?
:) </EFF HINT>
<EFF HINT>Of course, winning one time would easily bankroll all the other cases
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
Personally I would have taken it to court.
They could have pushed them right up to the point where the prosecutor says "You honour, I'd now like to play the contents of Exhibit A to the jury..."
'sapientia potestas est'
I suppose it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens to Professore Arturo Metallica of the University of Milan.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Worth noting is an absolutely identical e-mail was sent to portland state university (www.pdx.edu - the other PSU ;) ) regarding usher and mp3's. It was also an invalid claim involving one of the public ftp sites on campus. It just came in this week.
Yay for the RIAA, protecting professor's names all over the country.
Or maybe it's just the combination of Usher, mp3, and universities called psu.
We need to find a way to get the BSA and the RIAA to cross paths so that we can work our way back to a usable Internet.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
I feel so safe and comforted that the RIAA is sending automated legal notices to everyone... this case reminds me the florida state election where the ficticious prez got his mandate... where thousands of black people were disqualified to vote because their initials match criminals imprisoned, convited or dead for a couple hundred years...
This gives me a great idea. Just like RIAA/MPAA is flooding p2p networks with fake files we could flood their search methods with fake files.
If every internet user with a webpage hosted 2-3 blank mp3 files with names like "BritneySpears-Baby.mp3", etc... The time it would take RIAA/MPAA to find all of them and verify them as blank would flood their capabilities.
Where the Music Matters
>I think by "temp employee," they mean to say the person responsible is now fired.
Actually, they made the mediaforce software an employee on a temporary basis. If corporations can be people, then why can't software be people also?
"Your Honor, it was Mr. Mediaforce, a temp who has since been upgraded to the newest version."
I have MP3s hosted with popular names, but they're just random bits of the Linux kernel as heard here
I'm an undergrad here at Penn State. Over the past few months they have been cracking down on copyrighted materials. They emailed the following letter to every student in the University:
I have a serious message for you about making illegal copies of copyrighted material. While you may be tempted not to read this email, I suggest that you do so in order to better understand just what the risks and penalties are for violating the law.
In recent years, high-speed computer networks and personal computers have made it easy to copy computer programs, movies, and recordings. Most of this material is copyrighted, which means the right to make copies is restricted. Making copies of any copyrighted material without the right to do so is against both state and federal law and University policy. Most people who make illegal copies know it is wrong, but are unaware of how severe the penalties can be.
The US Copyright Law (Title 17 of the US Code) has very serious penalties for violations. These include significant fines for each copy. If you copy more than $1,000 worth of material, there are criminal penalties that include substantial fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years prison time for flagrant cases of infringement.
The software, record, and movie industries are stepping up their enforcement of copyright laws. They are using computer technology to detect those who run servers or simply download something they have no right to possess. The likelihood of being caught is growing every day, and prosecutions will become more frequent.
You may have downloaded copyrighted materials and not been caught, so you think you're safe from prosecution. I urge you to think again. Two students in Oregon were caught and prosecuted under the criminal statutes. One received a suspended two-year sentence, the other spent time in jail. A student in North Carolina spent 41 months in prison for copyright infringement. Messing up your future is a steep price to pay for music or a video.
What happens at Penn State if you are caught? By statute, the University must immediately block your network access when we receive notification that a particular computer has been involved in a violation of the law. You may also be taken to court by the copyright holder or charged in the federal courts with a crime. That is not all that can happen. You should know that falsely certifying either that you have the right to material or have removed it can result in federal perjury charges as well as copyright infringement.
What else does Penn State do? When we receive a complaint, student offenders are referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs and employees to the Office of Human Resources. Why? Because it is illegal and against University policy to infringe on someone's copyright. A student can be expelled and an employee terminated under University policy.
The bottom line is that there is a potentially high price to pay for an illegally copied computer program, movie, or recording. Stealing is stealing and against the law, regardless of how you try to justify it.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Rodney A. Erickson March 31, 2003
After the letter was sent 220 students were served notices from the Judicial Affairs Office. You can read more about it in the school newspaper. school newspaper. In the article it says, "Rodack said it can take only one complaint against a student before dorm Internet connection is shut down and he or she is investigated."
Has anyone else seen the same pattern at their school? Is this par for the course?
Can this post get any longer?
Too bad i'm not a Professor Emeritus yet, then i'd get free Metallica and Eminem stuff.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
Off with their heads!!
If you softlinked /dev/urandom to your "MP3Z" shared on your apache server. Of course, put similar names like "Hit me Maby One More Time.mp3" or "Slim Shinji.mp3" or "Independs Day.mpeg"
Let them download all they want. Then sue them for MISUSE OF RESOURCES.
you think the vatican is a company?
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
::breathes::
::breathes:: in ::breathes:: the ::breathes:: name ::breathes:: of ::breathes:: the ::breathes:: force ::breathes:: do ::breathes:: you ::breathes:: think ::breathes:: you're ::breathes:: doing? ::breathes::
::breathes::
::breathes:: What
::outstretches hand::
I'm waiting for the RIAA to find my MP3s of key sections of meetings of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
"Worst. Apology. Ever."
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
You could post a lot of MP3s to a website and say they're popular artists.. But have them be filled with something public domain. When they sue you, just claim "Oh, well it wasn't really this file.. download it first, jackass." It'll raise their legal costs (they actually have to CHECK their facts) and maybe they'll stop bothering because it gets so expensive. Or not.
Madonna and others place bogus mp3 files out there, just to make it harder to find real mp3's...
And now we're going to put bogus mp3 files out there, to make it harder for the RIAA to find real mp3's (and up their noise to signal ratio)...
i like it, i like it!
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
The RIAA should search for files containing Usher and mp3, but instead of deleting them, they should all be replaced with ten second "sample" music clips. That way, users don't have to worry about losing files, *and* they get exposed to music they might like. This might even boost record sales!
All child molesters are human.
Therefore, Hilary Rosen is a child molester.
This syllogism is brought to you by the RIAA Institute of Critical Thinking and Logic.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
And DOWN plummets the credibility of the RIAA! woohoo!
That's the RIAA's way of shooting a gun........ and obviously Congress' way as well, because they seem to say: "yup, yup, yup" to every proposal the RIAA floats...
this is a bit of good reading from Steve Albini. If you don't know who he is, well, he has been a figure on the indoe music seen from bands like Big Black and Shellac. He has engineered albums from Nirvana as well. His production style is often imitated. In short, he's the shit. Go here to learn something
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Penn State is working closely with the RIAA because Barry Robinson a lawyer for the RIAA is on the Board of Trustees so instead of representing the interests of the university and protecting the students, Penn State president Grahm Spanier has chosen to let a trustee influence university policy for the sake of the crooked organization he works for. I should post this AC but I really dont give an fsck. Penn State is dedicated to building unnecessary buildings while removing as much parking as possible. I now have to walk 20 mins from a staff parking lot to work so fire me before I die of heat stroke this summer ;)
This-u... bogus-u MP3 busta busta busta busta...
Am I the only one who heard Roxette to sing "I'm gonna get blitzed for some sex"?
Notice the Prof is now looking into the excess dammage by the DMCA and is contacting Congress? We need more of these to hit Congress.
The truth shall set you free!
This reminds me of a joke:
Jason has a conversation with his new neighbour Pete:
J: So what do you do?
P: I teach deducive logic.
J: Huh?
P: Let me demonstrate. Do you have a dog?
J: Yes.
P: From this I deduce that you have a family?
J: Yeah.
P: And a wife?
J: Yeah.
P: And if you have a wife, I deduce that you are heterosexual.
J: That's amazing!
After this Jason visits his friend Chris:
J: I just found out this awesome field called deducive logic.
C: Say what?
J: Let me demonstrate. Do you have a dog?
C: No.
J: Then you must be gay.
boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
Now this gives me an idea. You'll recall that the RIAA has been busy filling the P2Ps with crap fake copies of songs... wouldn't it be interesting if everyone started filling their FTPs and webservers with fake .mp3 files that were provacatively named? Their bots would eventually choke on all the crap, it would cost them lots of money, and they'd look stupid. Ah, sweet irony.
A fellow Slashdotter said it best:
"Putting a lameness filter on Slashdot is like putting a shit filter on your ass."
Priceless.
Kind of reminds me when I was in high school. I had an mp3 of "Hack the Planet" (from H2K) on my network drive, and the school deleted it, locked my network drive, and called me to the office for having "illegal mp3's". I never got an apology though...
How the hell was this off topic, I mean, this person had a point, and it was ON TOPIC you idiots, are they too lazy to download the file to check it? Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting, the only ones that are modded up are the Elite trol^h^h^h^HNerds and those are the type that would mod everyone else down.
They are filling lawsuits without even CHECKING to see if defendants are in violation? Am I violating a copyright if I change the FILENAME of my mp3s to infringing titles?
Boy, it's awful they're just going to let this slide. I would file a countersuit claiming libel/slander at a bare minimum, even if it where to be thrown out, just to make a point to them. Of course, I noticed a fairly recent post stating the RIAA is on the board of trustees at Penn State. Sad.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Hit them. In the face. Hard.
When asked why, respond, "You look like someone who owed me money. Guess not. Sorry. Here's a Ultimate Fighting Championship T-shirt and DVD."
It's great to be on board with the tactics used by our friendly copyright holders! Go Team!
...I am innocent and don't owe $34 million dollars to the RIAA?
-Dr.Enter_Sandman.
Looks like we Slashdotted the site =P
~Berj
I'm not sure you can have an FTP that allows anonymous access and not call it public. If you're going to host videos/songs then you should be smart about it. Some dumbass that puts an MP3 file on his school's FTP server deserves to get caught. Just don't allow anon access, and you should be okay (because if they try to break in, guess what? That's called illegal entry)
Vote for global prefs bug
I can understand this for a startup company, as long as the company quickly moves to start covering the costs of its labor. But in the case of a wealthy organization, this means that the wealthy organization just *chooses* not to give economic justice. More for me, nothing for you.
I have been seeing this more and more, and it is part of what ails America. It comes from the move to give more to the investors, and comes from the blinds that are provided by corporate coverage, in which the investors can't see the plight of their workers.
But let me point out the results of economic injustice: if there is economic injustice, then the victim's investments remain unpaid, and in that case, it does not pay for the victim to invest!
In the case of inventors who can't afford to patent and defend their inventions, because the patent system only benefits wealthy corporations, the proper response is to not devote effort to inventing.
In the case where your compensation is not based upon justice, it does not pay to invest in an education that will make you a more valuable employee.
In the case where businesses are taxed to death, so that other businesses can recieve lucrative government contracts, it does not pay to start a business and help the economy: it pays to work your own garden instead.
In the case where individuals are taxed to death, to pay for more tax collectors, the farmer's strategy doesn't pay -- only the highway robber's strategy pays. If you want to see what this is like, look at Congo/Zaire.
If you think it is getting bad, and the problem is the government, then tell the government. If you don't think they'll listen, then it's better to leave, and find a better place.
Here's How.
If you think it is getting bad, and the problem is the people (yeah, they're all good people, they just, well, you can depend on them to do really evil things), then it's doubly important to find a better group of people.
Here's a hint.
If worst comes to worst, duck, cover the ones you love as well as possible, stay out of the way of wars as much as possible, and try to live with as much justice and charity as possible.
But the bible is absolutely right: when we choose to withhold a man's wages, we commit violence. When we choose economic theft as a regular diet, we commit murder. And we recreate our world to become a horror. Our spiritual failings definitely bring physical problems and death.
Just my two cents. That's all.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
My nicknames include: Massive Attack, Moby, U2, Texas, Macy Gray, Oribal, Aphex Twin, and lots more. I will send you a complete list to avoid these kind of anoiances.
1) Record your roommate singing in the shower, rehearsing a speech, whistling on the toilet seat.
2) Using roommate's login, upload the recorded file to the university network the file named 50_Cent-Complete_Album.mp3, or R_Kelly_Ignition(remix).mp3
3) Wait to see the look on his face when the letter from RIAA arrives.
"Oh, we mistook you for a 9-foot black man," and you say "it could happen to anyone."
Bullshit. Intimidation is a crime. Prosecute.
if that done by temp EMPLOYEE or not? It's done by the COMPANY and it should bear consequences.
It's internal stuff is unimportant.
What is wrong with that link? I wanted to tell them what a fine job they are doing.
Why slashdot? Why not?
Heh heh. I just read the readme file with the "usher" in the filename.
I love the way he tears apart the reviewer of his submitted journal article.
<blam> Take that!
Good though, to see the network admin is getting signatures in his department to tell RIAA to go formally fsck themselves.
Don't those DMCA threaten & harass letters almost always include a statement along the lines of: "I hereby swear, under penalty of PERJURY, than I am the copyright holder or the legal representative therof."???
Said statement was obviously NOT true in this case, and I don't think those letters include a disclamier like: "unless I get CAUGHT lieing, and apologize afterward".
So do those "swear under penalty of perjury" clauses have any real legal validity? If so, isn't it appropiate for some RIAA/Metallica drones to be shareing bunkspace with Charlie Manson in the very near future? After all, when a regular citizen does it, perjury is a pretty BIG deal. Why should the RIAA/Metallica enjoy any immunity?
Or are those lines not, in any way, legally binding? If that's the case, why include them at all?
cya,
john
Imagine all the people...
For those who want to use PeerGuardian, here's how:
n text.asp for the plaintext list of ranges to block.
1. Download PG from here: http://methlabs.org/pg/
2. Install it.
3. Edit "C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian\Guarding.P2P" in a text editor.
4. Go to http://www.simply-click.org/uploadertest/pg2_plai
5. Copy and Paste it into the Guarding.P2P file. It must have no empty lines at the beginning of the file, and must have at least one blank line at the end of the file.
You may want to leave off the last few lines from that webpage, this is a submission type of thing, and new submissions are added to the bottom of the list. Delete the bad lines from morons and such at the end. They get onto the list every so often.
6. Startup PG and make sure it reads in the block list correctly.
Congratulations, you're now blocking all TCP connections with over 50 million IP addresses, most of which are probably "the bad guys". I don't generally steal music or offer up music, I just don't like these people and so I block them on principle.
Also, PeerGuardian supports a pgdat:// type of link, so as new addresses are changed, you can click the links on http://www.simply-click.org/uploadertest/pg2.asp to add them to PeerGuardian directly instead of manually editing the blockfile.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You know, the RIAA is going to justify their economic injustice, by saying "well, we are just mitigating our losses due to theft, and we aren't going to pay more than we have to."
They're wrong to think that it makes their paying unjustly low wages okay, but you might just be comforted to know that they are using *your* petty evil, copying music illegally, to justify their evil.
It might just be a comforting thought. Or something.
Of course, you justify your petty evil either by saying "but I don't have the money I want" [same justification shoplifters use, and evil corporate directors], or by pointing out that the law goes against natural law -- which it does. It is a granted right, and granted rights usually damage inherent rights.
And that is justified because of other granted rights.
I just have a question, though. Is anybody going to stand up, like me, at least when it comes to their luxuries, and say "the shit stops here"?
At least, if this cycle of evil is going to complete another turn, say "that's life, but I won't be a part of the evil"?
It's easy to condemn others' evil -- but a bit harder, and more important to give up our own.
Just my $2.00.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
"Things are not always as they appear." My father once told me this, and he was right, too.
.mp3, and then sending a threatening letter based upon it is rather stupid in my view. I'd say that making an accusation based upon looks and appearances alone (without even actually doing an acoustic analysis of the file in order to determine if it IS indeed a copy of copyrighted material) is completely and totally idiotic.
Seeing "Usher" in A FILE NAME, which just happens to end in
Hell, it's roughly the same as seeing a fruit basket and assuming that since it looks like an apple it is an apple, and chowin' down; only to realize halfway through your second very zealous bite that it's wax fruit and you've screwed up.
But odds are, the lesson hasn't been learned: the RIAA will continue to send out very threatening emails with great frequency every time they spot a word in a filename which happens to (by coincidence, I'm sure) belong to a musical artist that the RIAA "looks out for the best interests of."
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
cat /dev/urandom > /var/www/Britney_Spears_-_Greatest_Hits_Track01.mp 3
of course, that might actually be the same command they use to create their "music"
If bad puns were like deli meat, this would be the wurst
Just wait until they hit gnutella and start suing all the people who offer 24kb - .mp3
24kb - (REALLY WORKS!).mp3
24kb - THE REAL THING.mp3
24kb - AV Checked!.mp3
The lawsuits will fly.
"'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."
So now are we going to see a chill on self-publishing of music? How many small artists who publish their own work on their site get "accidental" threatening letters just because they share a name with some RIAA-sponsored pop star?
simon
home page
By way of additional apology, the RIAA said it will send Peter Usher an Usher CD and T-shirt "in appreciation of his understanding."
I can remember somebody was giving me the shits in year 9 at high school, so I punched him in the arm. The whiney little bastard cried, so I - feeling bad about it - gave him fifty cents in compensation.
He stopped crying after that.
What credibility? Are we both talking about the same company here?
By reading this comment, you immediately waive any and all rights regarding it.
you know, when I read this headline, I was wondering why the RIAA would be making such a big deal about a Canadian artist, David Usher (http://www.davidusher.ca/) former lead vocalist of the Vancouver band Moist (http://www.moist.ca/).
Then I clicked on the link and found it to be another crappy, overproduced rapper. No wonder the RIAA is striking out to protect this 'asset'.
Not to start a flame war, but really....
It's not a good idea to hit someone in the face (with a fist), as that's an easy way to break one or more of your fingers. Make sure to either use an open-handed strike (hit them with the heel of your palm), or something even better, like a chair.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
If every slashdot reader with write access to an ftp site filled a directory somewhere with empty files named after musicians/songs with the suffix .mp3 the RIAA would have a hell of a lot more work to do determining which sites were the copyright violators and which were just serving dummy files. This would put a spanner in their works, and create a few jobs at the same time. Just a thought ;-)
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Don't they make these claims under penalty of perjury? So they're guilty of perjury. Clearly if there's a human or primate that actually sends the notice and not just a computer program, then they screwed up. If there isn't they're just plain reckless. So where's the penalty part? Oops! Sorry, lets just forget that we did something wrong, umkay? Umkay.
Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
If the RIAA grabs the bait, you can sue all you like.
Good luck, David.
Even if they do not take the bait, this technique is a nice way of using their own tactics against them. They will have to listen to each mp3 before sending letters to anyone.
The exact same thing happened to me as well, Mr Stanley Rolling-Stones.
well, according to quality of your 2nd and this one, you really need to consider not posting at all. Ever again.
Once you get it from http://methlabs.org/pg/ then its all GUI from there.
Support>Visit PG2 Database to get more IPs.
STFU!!
...full of white noise. As hundreds of people get false positived by RIAA, they will have no choice but to stop this bandwidth-wasting (i.e. DOSing) method of hunting down for "copyright violations". And while you're at it, put robots file in your directory, along with a warning about automated illegal downloads of the site in terms of financial penalties incurred.
"Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Mr Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "It's well known."
Thats a good one. I really like it. Yes George, it is well known. You've been telling everyone for nearly a year now, in fact.
It is also well known that the world is flat and the moon is made of cheese. People keep saying it, therefore its true.
Stunning.
"Usher" detected. Assumed "The Fall of the House of Usher" by The Alan Parsons Project. Copyright violation. Take off all lawyers eh!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Morons like you are like a broken record. Whinge whine, whine whine, "Ohhh, its not stealing. I'm so clever. Its not stealing. I'm so clever." Yammer yammer yammer, the same shit spews from your mouth.
So screw you and your pedantic little whiny ass definitions. Fine, downloading MP3's is not stealing. It is the illegal redistribution of unlicenced copyrighted intellectual property.
Guess what. The illegal redistribution of unlicenced copyrighted intellectual property is illegal! So you're still an asshole, but at least your a pedantic whiney little asshole, right?
they can monitor your internet if they like, just keep their hands off mine!
I have a mind to start a new sourceforge project - a bot that creates a tar-pit website to confuse this kind of bot.
It would grab the album chart from FreeDB and then make a pseudo random listing of 20 or so artists. Clicking on an artist's name would reveal the names of the albums, and clicking on the album name would reveal links to song downloads as MP3s.
Each page would have a 10 second delay on loading, and each MP3 download (which would be white noise) would be downloaed at about 10 bits per second. The idea would be to tie-up as many threads on thhe RIAA servers for as long as possible.
Next, the system would run on a wildcarded domain name so that it would look to the RIAAbot as if it were a large number of sites. Each of these sites would link to each other creating a vast low bandwidth tarpit.
How about that then?
An Usher CD and T-Shirt in "appreciation of his understanding" sounds more like a punishment than an apology.
So I just downloaded AND listenened to that mp3.
It pretty much sucks.
I can only imagine Dr Usher is a pretty sick and twisted guy, not to mind those with the stupid idea to encode that garbage.
"The unlicensed distribution of digital content is a major concern to copyright owners"
So, the distribution is the problem.....Not the non-payment of royalties.
In the UK I can go into a pub and provide entertainment by playing as many downloaded MP3's as I like, so long as I take note of what songs I've played and pay the royalties.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Has anyone written a virus with "RIAA" inside it somewhere? If the RIAA wrote one, would they admit to it? What about fizzer? Is that one of theirs?
People are buying his albums! He's gone platinum! Perhaps people aren't buying my albums because of all the mp3's I distribute, or just MAYBE, I'm not that popular of an artist. Popular artists will sell records AND get downloads, no matter what.
stuff |
You are correct, Bill. You need to call me. My phone number is ... I lost it. Leave another message. I need your help. And you know for a fact that you need mine.
perjury
n. the crime of intentionally lying after being duly sworn (to tell the truth) (...). This false statement may be made (...) by signing or acknowledging a written legal document (such as affidavit, declaration under penalty of perjury, (...) known to contain false information. Although it is a crime, prosecutions for perjury are rare, because a defendant will argue he/she merely made a mistake or misunderstood.
Unless you have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the RIAA knew that this was not the song they thought it was, it won't fly. Doesn't look like there's any penalty for just being wrong.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
like 'Ushering in change at RIAA.mp3'
fill it with a rant about how much (and why) the RIAA sucks...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Excuse me Bill, let me add just a little more wisdom. HURRY THE FUCK UP. I don't have all goddamned day to wait on you. I'm going to a public access terminal today to find what you're going to leave me here. You have work to do and you had better do it quick. Your task is simple. Find me and all your answers will be found as well.
Hillary Rosen ordered an exhumation of the body of Edgar Allen Poe after finding an MP3 file entitled HouseOfUsher.mp3 that was authored by the "nefarious pirate" Mr. Poe.
"Obviously we cannot let long dead artists continue to flaunt copyright law in this manner," quoted Ms. Rosen. "Fortunately, with our new changes to copyright we will ensure that Corporations remain in control of creative work like these in the future. Especially after the artist has passed on."
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Penn is the Ivy League U of P.
Penn State is grades 13 through 16.
A.C.
PSU '83, BS Sci.
that's Dr. Steven Tylor.mp3 filling up my hard drive.
Emeritus?! He ought to retire soon, and change his name...then maybe he won't be hassled by those ReamIng Arrogant Asses.
No, the RIAA/MPAA sucks. It's a union for companies. It's the stupidest goddamn idea ever. Even if it were run by Jesus him-fucking-self, it would still suck. Is there a reason why, say, movie theaters can't tell people how many times Jack Nicolson says "fuck"? Is there a reason that the pathetic goth at the record store can't tell me how many times Ludacris says "fuck"? Is there a reason why Sony can't just print up it's own threatening letters instead of paying tens of thousands of people to answer phones and run the copy machines first?
No, it's definately not just the minds behind them.
by mistakenly planting bogus files with the same name that they don't own. If RIAA mistakes someone else's file as one of their copyrighted ones (and we see how easy that was to do) they could be interfering with the distribution of someone else's property. That's in the same category as spamming, or worse. I hope there would be a way for the victim to get legal compensation ... seems like just a matter of time before it happens.
All sigs should be as funny as possible, but no funnier.
'honest mistake' My arse.
It is purely part of the publicity stunt.
Trying to look as if they are the good guys.
From the network admin mailing list at Penn State:
"<i>...I was also led to believe that I am the first on-campus complaint where the RIAA allegations were not legitimate. We have a professor Peter Usher, and an mp3 file in another directory that was done a cappella by our employees and extols the capabilities of the Swift Gamma Ray Burst satellite that is scheduled to go into orbit later this year. Nothing else that would even come close to infringement.</i>"
Has anyone else seen the same pattern at their school? Is this par for the course?
No, actually; I go to a public ivy in the mid-west and also work for the computing division. We have about 10,000 undergrads living on campus, and have lots of money for nice computers with fat hard drives. Last year a couple of people ran a DC server on campus and had anywhere between 600 and 800 users on at any given time sharing about 11 terabytes or so. Some individuals were sharing 200 + gig's individually. The school heard nothing about this DC server what so ever and therefore knew, but did nothing about it. Beats Kazaa, it's mostly students so it barely uses the internet link (and thus doesn't cost the universit money on I-net bandwidth)...
On the other hand a handful of RIAA letters were sent for Kazaa sharers. The RIAA sent a letter and the IP to the university, the security team forwarded the letter to the person in question, told them to destroy the file or if the own it not to share it and if they had questions, call. That was all. They didn't tell the RIAA who they were, and the RIAA asks for this (think Verizon) and the letters go ignored.
So no, many universities are much more lax about the piracy issue.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
someone thought that using that tactic to help the DeCSS not dissapear from the internet too...i think by doing that you help the enemy more than anything... i mean really...if they can't find the real files what makes you think the casual searcher can? while there's always respect in my heart for [pseudo]bands like metephallica...c'mon people.
in the meanwhile... why not instead just Host More Files...worry about your own life...Get a good knife...and do other productve things...
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
We should flood all FTP / Kazaa / etc servers with legitimately named files, such as Usher.mp3, that are just legitimate files.
Send the RIAA on a witch hunt, that's what I say.
I'm not sure that would work. They'd probably just send DMCA complaints anyway, and if you have a stupid hosting company, your site would be shut down.
A much better idea: make fake fan sites where the title, summary, and url look real, so anyone searching will have trouble finding the "artist's" page. Get together with a bunch of people and link the pages together, so Google will give the fake sites high PageRanks. Let's see Britney fans find her page. We can play the spamming game too. ;-)
Then again, putting the names of these organized crime supporting celebs somewhere in all your pages may mess searches up just as much.
Pepsi? You are owned by the dark side. Just look at one of thiers did to Apple. I doubt a public university will have a charismatic leader who can come and save it at the last moment. I'd tell you to get out, but the job market sucks right now. Suck it up and take the Dolly Madison Anthopology courses or something.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Oh gosh, that explains so much. THanks for the info.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
I imagine the $50,000 or so just extorted from four students will just cover the costs associated with this. The salary of the temporary employee who took the blame, $24,000/year x 2 month career = $4,000.. Legal fees = $45,999. Cost of setlement offered = $1.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Ok, ok, ok. I was wrong. Bill Gates is not looking for me. Because I am insane. It was Hillary Rosen who posted the original response to my first comment. Musta been. She would be the only person that would be really scared of it in the first place.
You had better write something Hillary. If you don't get in touch with me, I'm coming to get in touch with you. Talk to you soon.
Josh McFarland.
Who the fsck listens to Usher anyway? Thats right -- nobody. Point is moot.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
In other words we have corporations snooping in on our transport medium. It's a dangerous slippery slope, what's next... I turn on my computer and it says "Your internet may be monitored for quality assurance purposes."
Most of the net is in plain text. That's the equivalent of shouting a conversation in a crowded room.
Even the use of encryption has it's limits. The message gets sent through possibly insecure pathways to the intended recipient and decrypted there. BUT, along the way, anyone can store the encrypted message and have forever to try and break the encryption.
The rule is that if a message is SO secret that you NEVER (as in infinity-never) want anyone to know, don't send it through insecure channels. It is expected that any encryption will eventually be broken.
One way to make use of this drawback to encryption is to send a message like, "Something important. Meet me at 8PM." If anyone listening can't break the encryption by 8PM, then they're s-out of luck.
This is not my sig.
Every day, The Road to Tycho looks less like fiction. Dare to share music and you get your network access cut. How many courses depend on that access? Oh, I see you start to fail your courses before they sue you for all your future earnings. Music today, books tomorrow. Public libraries will be eliminated. These cases are not about publishing they are about sharing and control.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
The RIAA can be contacted at:
RIAA
1330 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 775-0101 phone
(202) 775-7253 fax
So If I start sharing files with names like "Madonna.mp3" with just audio clips of me talking about madonna,"Matrix Reloaded.divx" with video footage of me talking about the new matrix movie, etc... and if RIAA tries to sue me, could I counter-sue for some violation of privacy or some other reason?
George W. Bush should be tard and feathered...well, one out of two ain't bad...
:)
Umm, nice attempt at a clever sig, but "tard" isn't a word. It's supposed to be "tarred and feathered", as in, covered in tar and feathers. Haven't you seen any old Loony Toons cartoons?
So if everyone were to just ramble on into a microphone about their favorite (or despised) artist, and then name it accordingly (eminem.mp3, madonna.mp3) and share it, the RIAA would have to keep paying lawyers for every warning they issue. The costs add up.
If all the RIAAs snooping is affecting my ping times I'm going to be salty.
This statement is true by default, simply because there is no such thing as intellectual property.
Perhaps we need the equivalent of Godwin's Law: if you use the term 'intellectual property' except in jest, you lose the argument.
At least mafia-owned pizzarias make excellent pizza. Compare to Bill Gates.
But on another note...why hasn't a RIAA/MPAA Apache-based honeypot been rigged up yet? Is anyone aware of one? I would be more than happy to GI/GO (Garbage In/Garbage Out) their search engines. I can't imagine it would be hard, and, AFAIK, doing so does NOT violate the DMCA. Every OS X user out there could become a weapon!
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
Tomorrow's story:
RIAA Sues Penn State for Apology Infringement -- the RIAA has filed suit against Penn State University for unauthorized duplication of its recent apology. RIAA spokeswoman Hilary Rosen explained that apology piracy costs the industry billions each year. Senator Fritz Hollings was not available for comment.
OT: At first I had the same thought, but I think the sig in question is punning on (re)tard.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Yeah, I know, but it doesn't work well, simply because it appears the poster doesn't understand the phrase "tarred and feathered" (like someone spelling "voila" "walla"... clearly, they don't understand the meaning of the word(s) they're using).
In the end, it's the kind of "joke" which only works well when spoken, as it relies on "tard" and "tarred" being (almost) homophones.
RIAA
1330 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300,
Washington, D.C., 20036
Alrighty, everyone record a "What the fuck are you thinking, RIAA?" MP3 and throw it up on your anonymous FTP sites and KaZaA everywhere, with the title of your favorite Pop group.
Soon, the RIAA will be kicking out MILLIONS of cease-and-desist letters to the world. It would negate their system all together.
Can you ping me now? Gooood! | Manhappenin.Net - Things to do
Innocent casualties will be the downfall of the RIAA. Counter lawsuits will start stacking up and they won't know what to do with themselves.
RIAA has sent a threatening letter to Edgar Allan Poe, after it came across on his 'The fall of the house of Ushers'. "it was not mp3 format' Hillary Rosen said, 'but nonetheless RIAA remains vigilant'. Edgar Allan Poe wasn't available for comments.
Isn't there something in US law requiring "due diligence" before attempting to prosecute a suit? Note IANAL, and worse, IANAA (...An American), so I could be wrong, but FindLaw's legal dictionary seems to think so.
In any case, if this means what I think it means in this context, the RIAA sure didn't do it.
(Your head hurt from all these conditionals yet?)
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
Have they apologized for corrupting the legislature? That's the more serious evil they have committed. Not that appologizing would suffice. They would need to make actual amends before I would start to begin to consider that they might be moral creatures. And that would be both difficult and costly.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I can't decide which I'd rather not hear: Usher or an a cappella group of astronomers singing about a satellite. Please, don't distribute either one!
Get enough folks to do this and the RIAA will be so busy chasing ghosts they won't know what to do w/themselves.
To Alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
the Iraqi government has bragged about its support of terrorist groups. Those terrorist groups have gone on the public record about how proud and grateful they are about the support they've received from the Iraqi government.
got a source on that one, sounds interesting?
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
>>not sure you can have an FTP that allows
>>anonymous access and not call it public
If I leave my vehicle unlocked, with car running and keys plain view in ignition, with a little trail of breadcrumbs leading to my door my insurance company still covers me for theft, because if someone gets in and takes it, it is still theft.
Choosing to not lock my doors does not give anyone else the right to enter.
I saw this a few days ago on DSLReports.com: A Speakeasy customer, who was running an anonymous FTP server, with NO MP3s at all, was forwarded a threatening letter from the RIAA by his ISP. The letter actually complained that the site offered "approximately 0 sound files for download. Many of these files contain recordings owned by our member companies," etc. See the whole thread here.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
So, let's all create thousands of zero length files containing artists names and '.mp3' and put them out on our ftp servers. :)
... is this had been Joe Schmoe@anyISP.net he'd have probably had to fight a lot harder to keep his net.access than the University did. Whatever happened to the idea of innocent until proven guilty? They're not even listening to the files to make sure that they are actually ones they own.
Of my daughters schools drama club play "Peter Pan"
I am not kidding. The movie association of america forced my ISP to require that.
Good example...
My insurance rate probably goes up, and everyone thinks I'm a moron for leaving the car unattended. I was asking for it, same as having bootleg music on a public server.
Vote for global prefs bug
Once you get it from http://methlabs.org/pg/ then its all GUI from there.
Support>Visit PG2 Database to get more IPs.
Yes, but that doesn't actually get those IPs into your system. Nor does it remove the bad IP ranges listed at the top of the file. Copying the plaintext version into your blocklist is easier to manage.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You'd be surprised at how many students don't know anything about the RIAA lawsuits, or the legal consequences in general. Not everyone is teribbly savvy on these matters, you know.
Incidentally, I know a guy who works in Penn State computer security, and they really do view letters like this as an informative service, not a threat. They don't want to get in the news for their students being sued by RIAA, so they're trying to warn people to clean up.
It's actually a huge hassle for Penn State to crack down on this themselves -- he told me it takes up to 45 minutes of work (labor, paperwork, etc.) to shut down someone's port. PSU isn't real eager to enforce this themselves, but they're also not real eager to seeing their students' criminal behavior making national headlines when RIAA comes after them. Hence, the e-mails.
It's a short but interesting page -- read it!
No you weren't. Some moderators obviously heard it too.
(have to post AC, because this will be moderated off-topic, flame-bait, or troll).
Like most humour, it exists in the eye of the beholder... maybe we should institute a pun fine here on slashdot: "-1, bad pun" :)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Funny how things happen at the same time my Press Release came out. I am trying to put an end to the way the RIAA and the MPAA are using and abusing the DMCA for good. Take a look at my case and you will see. Thanks for your support.
Michael J. Rossi InternetMovies.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 12, 2003
INTERNETMOVIES.COM appeals to U.S. Ninth Circuit Court against federal judge's ruling THAT DMCA does not require MPAA to conduct any investigation to shutdown websites.
KAHULUI, Maui, Hawaii, May 12 / -- The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii granted the Defendant's motion on April 29, 2003, in regard to the case of Michael J. Rossi d.b.a. InternetMovies.com vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) et al. InternetMovies.com attorney, Jim Fosbinder said, "The Judge has held that the "good faith belief" requirement before sending cease and desist letters under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not require the MPAA to conduct any investigation prior to sending cease and desist letters to Internet service providers. The same "good faith belief" phrase has been held to require an investigation in hundreds of other federal decisions where the phrase is used in other federal statutes and rules including copyright, trademark, securities and federal rules of civil procedure cases. In the InternetMovies.com case, the MPAA admitted sending threatening letters to the Internet service provider without conducting any investigation."
The lawsuit was filed against the MPAA last year, on April 25, 2002 as a result of a series of cease and desist orders issued in March and April 2001, wrongfully accusing InternetMovies.com for distributing unauthorized copies of copyrighted motion pictures and ultimately the wrongful shutdown of the entire web site http://www.InternetMovies.com . One of the downloadable movies noted by the MPAA was "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King", which is due in theaters in December 2003 and was to be in post production at the time of the cease and desist order. The allegations against the MPAA include interference with contractual obligations, interference with prospective economic advantage, as well as libel and defamation. A settlement agreement was offered to InternetMovies.com by the MPAA if Rossi waived the right to appeal. InternetMovies.com did not settle and will be appealing the decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit contending that unless a requirement of a reasonable investigation prior to shutting down a web site is read into the DMCA, the DMCA would alter the usual legal relationship of the parties in favor of the copyright holder, providing little or no recourse to the person or business wrongfully accused of violating copyright laws. In addition, InternetMovies.com will be contending that the requirement of the DMCA's "good faith belief" of alleged infringement has in nearly every other context been held to require a reasonable inquiry or investigation, which was not done by the MPAA prior to the shutdown. InternetMovies.com intends to ask the District Court Judge to reconsider its ruling that a "good faith belief" does not require the MPAA to make any investigation.
InternetMovies.com is a web site with an online directory of artists' works and Internet news magazine providing information and resources about movies on the Internet. One of the goals of InternetMovies.com is to allow studios and independent artists to distribute digitally secure movies to its membership and duly compensate artists for their works.
the faculty who are not mentioned in the notice and are free to copy/distribute any and everything a student submits as part of their coursework or has on their computer without worry. Like making your doctorate thesis available in the university library for future New York Times reporters to create a story from....
sounds like an extreem sport :)
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
in regina, sk, canada has the same sort of deal with cocacola...
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
robots.txt work in http protocol, I think. Not in ftp I think you are wrong.
-Woof woof woof!
http://www.digital-update.com/forums/index.php