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"."

Comments

Why pay attention when your extorting?

[FredThompson]

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."

Re:Why pay attention when your extorting?

[ColaMan]

Ha! Excellent Idea!

Put your copyrighted file on a website with a click-through EULA :

"Users downloading these songs must agree to pay the copyright owner *1 BILLION* dollars for each song downloaded. (Insert usual boilerplate here) To accept the terms of this agreement , press the "I Agree" button".

Make sure you advertise with google your website and it's file for download. Used a sponsored link if you feel like it.

The following steps :

1) They click through, get file, send cease and desist.
2) Me : "oh, you downloaded my file? Glad you liked it!excuse me, where's my BILLION dollars?"
3) RIAA get their crack legal team out to defend themselves.

End result is either:

1) RIAA proves that click through EULA's are not valid. We can ignore Microsoft and their EULA's all we want after that, with the added happy bonus of using an Evil Corps lawyers against another Evil corp.

or (my personal favorite)

3) Microsoft weighs in on my side with their legal team and I get my billion dollars. Ok, I'll donate a few million to the Gates foundation, and the EFF ;-) Again the happy bonus of using an Evil Corps lawyers against another Evil corp.

Maybe we could turn it into a sport - corporation-baiting, here we come!

"Honest mistake" ?!?!?!?

[drdanny_orig]

If you think about it, almost every word in the English language appears in some band's name somewhere. The mistake may have been "honest" (although I find that a questionable use of the word), but they're apt to be making it a lot in the coming months.

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?

Re:The current state of things...

[int69h]

You'd think that a university should understand copyright better.

Making copies of any copyrighted material without the right to do so is against both state and federal law and University policy.

Hogwash. Making copies of anyone's copyrighted materials is permitted by US law. Distributing those copies is another matter entirely. I propose they rename it to copyanddistributeright.

Sorry I forgot the block in the closing blockquote.