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RIAA Wins In Court Against UW Madison
Billosaur writes "A judge has ordered the University of Wisconsin-Madison to turn over the names and contact information for the 53 UW-M students accused of file sharing over the university's networks by the RIAA. 'U.S. District Judge John Shabaz signed an order requiring UW-Madison to relinquish the names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and Media Access Control addresses for each of the 53 individuals.' The ruling came as no surprise to the university, which had previously rejected the request of the RIAA to hand out their settlement letters to alleged copyright violators on their campus. The school feels the RIAA will have a hard time tracking down who did the file-sharing anyway, as the IP addresses the RIAA has for the violations may be mapped to computers in common areas, making it difficult to determine just which people may have made the downloads."
...how i hope that the ip-adresses can be matched to the biggest computer pools available at UW. and that all the login-data was lost in a miraculous backup-failure.
did i say anything? why is it ringing at the door at that late time of day? what the f...AAAAAAAARGH...
connection reset by peer.
Actually, I'm still waiting for the RIAA to send letters to TMobile asking for user names of those who downloaded files from a Starbucks hotspot.
This would seem to be the best test of that little IP == user question.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
New anti-RIAA bumper sticker:
"When MAC address spoofing is outlawed, only outlaws will spoof MAC addresses"
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
More than likely, when the next generation gets into power, they'll remember this and pass legislation that will move the pendulum the other way to the detriment of the copyright holders. Corporate America being corporate America, they'll make sure they don't lose and those and the talent/creators will be the ones who take it in the pocket book.
As far as outdated business models are concerned, there are legal ways to get this material, so the "outdated business model" argument is no longer valid.
Dear Mr and Mrs Joe Average
We, the RIAA, represent copyright holders of digital content, and as such, it has come to our attention that you own a computer which is also connected to the Internet via Globalcom ISP.
We have acquired web surfing logs from Globalcom, and have determined that several people in the Northern Hemisphere have been downloading music files illegally. Since you connect to the Internet via Globalcom we are prepared to offer you a discounted amnesty program. You may choose this option, sending us the requisite $5,000 payment via check or major credit card, or you may choose to wait till we take you to court, confiscate your computers, all the computers you have had access to, and the computing and entertainment devices of yourselves, all your family members, and anyone who has been within 50 feet of your wireless router.
We cheerfully await your reply and are certain you will do the right thing.
Sincerely,
The RIAA
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
so when are we going to start seeing spoofs; maybe something like:
hi, I'm a MAC address.
and I'm the RIAA.
just got to get hodgeman to do the voice-over and we're all set.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
UW Madison should reply using the immortal words of our esteemed Attorney General, "'I have no recollection' of the passphrase to that encrypted file."
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Tip: Do not show up for court wearing your iPod.
"Hey, why are there 1,700 different IPs all registered to 00-DE-AD-BE-EF-00?"