University of Ohio Abandons Students Attacked by RIAA

newtley writes "The University of Ohio was putting a brave face on being #1 on the RIAA hit list, but it now appears they have caved in to RIAA intimidation. Now, 'It appears that many institutions are simply prepared to wash their hands, refusing even to question the tactics of the industry,' let alone giving students meaningful legal assistance, says Ohio lawyer Joe Hazelbaker. He's written to OU associate director of legal affairs Barbara Nalazek saying, 'Ohio University has an obligation to protect the privacy of its students and their records, which includes directory information.' The Recording Industry vs. The People blog is hosting a letter universities whose students being attacked might want to consider."

Comments

Another one bites the dust

[ajanp]

I guess they decided to not to take the advice from our favorite anti-RIAA Harvard professor http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/05/04 13249

I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that a couple hundred University of Ohio students will be receiving some pre-litigation notices in the mail sometime next week.

Re:Another one bites the dust

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

Actually, let's be careful here.

Ohio University's office of Student Legal Services has done an excellent job -- far better than the SLS at many other schools -- of advising the students. In fact they affirmatively went out of the way to help them find counsel and to make them aware of their legal rights, and of resources upon which they could draw.

The problem is that under their charter, they're not authorized to litigate in federal court, and have to refer the students to outside counsel.

Now the university's counsel's office should be taking a more activist role than it has, as Mr. Hazelbaker eloquently pointed out in his letter (pdf).

Re:Stop Downloading Crap Music?

[shmlco]

And if you have to have it, a used cd is often only $4 or so on half.com.

It's Ohio University

[Eldred]

Correction: The school referred to in the story is called "Ohio University," not "University of Ohio."

Re:Slashdot's hugely biased reporting

[BakaHoushi]

Practice what you preach. They "broke the law?" No, they did no such thing. They allegedly "infringed on a copyright." They are two separate things for a reason. copyright infringement != theft. That's why people aren't locked up for it. They're sued.

And mind you, many of these words may be buzzwords, but at their heart, can you honestly say this is not intimidation? How many people who have NOT downloaded anything illegally have been sued? How many laws (note, LAWS) has the RIAA tried to bend/break in order to GET information on people?

And one last bit that gets said over and over again:
When you pay for that System of a Down CD, 95% of that money (number made up off top of my head, point is, vast majority) goes to... the RIAA/its affiliates. Bands make money off of tours, merchandise, etc.

And for the record, no, I don't pirate music. Or anything, really. I simply don't really care for most music, and my last album (Weird Al's Straight Outta Lynwood) I did get in physical form.

Counsel's Office, Not Student Legal Services

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

I just want to be sure to clarify something.

The Student Legal Services office at OU, which acts as a legal adviser and representative for the students, has worked very hard to make the students aware of their rights and to help them find counsel. Unfortunately SLS's charter does not authorize it to represent the students in federal court, so it must try to obtain outside referrals for them.

It is the university's counsel's office to which Mr. Hazelbacker's letter is addressed.