Slashdot Mirror
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"."
Don't player hate... someone out there making some money off an industry/company with lots of it? Jelous?
Snooze and you lose your sushi.
The fact that they sent out tens of thousands of infringement notices and this is the first public mixup suggests that copyright infringement is a serious problem and wrongful/false accusations are the exception. In this case the server was never taken down and the RIAA acted swiftly to resolve the problem. The professor even got an Usher CD and T-shirt for his troubles. Plus, the RIAA said that it would review sites before sending out infringement notices. Abuse could be a problem; but I don't see it as one yet. I would be much more concerned if there were tens/hundreds of false accusations that cost lots of time and money to resolve.