Slashdot Mirror
RIAA Grabs Student's Life's Savings
An anonymous reader writes "ABCNews is reporting on a 19-year-old college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He created a site named ChewPlastic.com where students could search for files on the university network. Mind you, this is not a music file sharing software, this is just a search engine. Presumably, the search engine was being used to search for music files as well. The folks over at the RIAA did not take too kindly to the idea, and sued the student. He settled but denies any wrongdoing. What was settlement, you ask? His life's savings."
I am assuming the name for this site is derived from the only remaining use for CDs?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
I guess the "and your firstborn" clause of the settlement wasn't made public.
The news report goes on to state that the RIAA is now prowd owners of an old bike, a Pentium II numerous games, a pair of worn-out jeans and a large untidy pile of magazines.
So this kid gets sued by the RIAA for writing a generic search engine, is forced to settle for $12,000 (his entire life savings), and his only real shot at recouping all his settlement money is flushed down the toilet by a massive denial of service attack "unwittingly" perpetrated by Slashdot?
:(
This world is a cruel, cruel place.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Hmm, lets see, life savings....
I'm graduating in a few weeks, here in the good old United Kingdom. My life savings....
-£12,000 student loan
-£2,500 credit card and bank overdraft
-£6,000 borrowed from parents.
£32.56 - investment account from about 20 years ago
£1.52 - current account from about 8 years ago
PIII-600, cant liquidate it cause its a tool of a trade.
come on RIAA, I've got 8,000 mp3's and a copy of "find", sue my ass so I can become bankrupt, lose all my debts, and be free with a degree!
Hey if the RIAA wants MY life savings, they can have it! Here! Reaches in pocket, pulls out a quater, two dimes, a nickel and 2 pennies. 52 cents! My entire life savings! I spent the rest on overpriced CDs.
My journal has hot
Very few articles make me angry. This one did.
Where the fuck have you been lately?
if he gets his money back then he is no worse off financially, and now he knows that they suck big fat major ass. Now he has a purpose in life, to screw them in the a-hole. You can't put a price on that. Plus, you can bet that the RIAA didn't come out ahead financially. They were probably spending $12,000/hour on all the lawyers to take down this one kid. But at least they got lots of positive press out of it. Nothing says "I love the community" more than stomping on the financial future of our nation's youth. I propose a national "hug the RIAA day" to show our appreciation to these fine people.