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RIAA Recommends Students Drop out of College
boarder8925 writes "An MIT student accused of copyright infringement has been documenting her struggles with the RIAA. Upon trying to negotiate her settlement, a representative told her that "the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.""
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time (or pay the fine!). I bet you all think she's a victim.
Yeah - you keep on doing that. Someday you will find out what the legal system is really about.
stupidest
thread
ever
Yet more proof that republicans are slow.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
I think the case would really have much, much more to do with the invasion of privacy used to obtain IPs and/or the extortion in the form of profiling their lawsuits (and ALWAYS settling) so that the defendants cannot possibly hope to afford legal representation. But I guess that if you honestly believe ANY lawyer on God's green Earth actually speaks like that you hadn't considered these possiblities.
1) Invasion of privacy - if your IP provider sells your info, your beef is with them, not the **AA. You sue the IP provider, unless (which they probably all do) have provisions saying they can and will give your info away at their whim. But even if you were correct and the *AA did something wrong - each case on it's on basis. The **AA would sue you for pirating and you could sue them for invasion of privacy. But really, nobody has done it (or at least been successful) at targeting the **AA for this because there is no case there. You would, again, have to go after your IP (unless they have a clause in the contract allowing them to do so, or the **AA came with a warrant). Maybe someone could clarify this. I do not want to speak, wiht 100% assurance someone hasn't sued and won for this since it COULD have happened. Just to make another note: When i said nobody has targetted the **AA. Well someone might say "that is because nobody can afford to"...trust me, there are PLENTY of lawyers who would pro-bono sue the **AA if they thought they had a valid case. There would be a line of them.
2) They are not extorting anything. They are saying "Give us XYZ dollars, and admit you did something wrong or we are going to sue you into oblivion AND press charges against you so you have to face criminal charges. By the way our lawyers *as well as your lawyers* are agrreing with us, and we will sue you for XYZ dollars to the Nth power if you don't comply." That is not extortion that is giving someone an option - which they do not have to do. If they were so evil they wouldn't give people the option. They would just sue them for some insane amount, then press charges and the gov't would take over with jail time and fines that could range in the millions. Settling is NOT illegal, and in fact the courts would PREFER that people settle out of court. It is not only legal, but it is encouraged. It saves time on everyones side. It saves money on everyones side (including the tax payers who need to pay for judges, courthouse, etc). If you are comitting a crime (and pirating *IS* a federal crime) then you can get sued...and if you cannot afford a lawyer that is really YOUR problem. You cannot blame the **AA because the person who is uploading music (illegally) can barely afford to pay his electricity bill, let alone a lawyer...As the saying goes "If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime".
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.