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Boston University Student Challenges RIAA
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Boston University student identified only as one of the 21 'John Does' in Arista v. Does 1-21 has challenged the RIAA's alleged right to get his or her identity from the school, bringing a motion to vacate the ex parte discovery order obtained by the RIAA, and to quash the subpoena served on the university. John Doe's court papers (PDF) argue, among other things, that the RIAA's papers are 'based on a flawed theory that having copyrighted music files on an individual's computer or on an assigned folder on Boston University's server is a "distribution" of such copyrighted music files, where such folder is merely accessible by others.'"
I just have a few questions which probably are irrelevant to all this but, what happens if you have 4 or 5 people split the cost of a few albums equally and then listen to the music between themselves on a folder available over a network connection... is this breaking the law? If that so when does it become legal? Would they have to be living with each other for example having music available to other family members over a network in the home? Or am I not even supposed to be doing that?
how is that different that leaving a CD physically out in the open? someone else is able to grab it and copy it. would that make me liable for leaving it there?
I think a better analogy would be: If you had a case of beer in your unlocked car and some kids opened the door and took it, would you be liable for distributing alcohol to minors? I don't know the law in this case (NAL), but it seems stupid to charge the person who bought the beer in this case. Unless, of course, they can prove that he got out of his car, looked over at a bunch of kids, and said, "Gosh, I sure hope nobody takes any of this beer out of my unlocked car, wink wink" then walked away
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
This could lead to some interesting complications when dealing with online storage.
For example, if a person has music online and believes that it is secured, would they be liable if someone breaks in and makes it available to others? I could see instances where this other person breaks in, makes the music available and then reports to the RIAA after a number of downloads are done.
Now some people would say that security is your responsibility, but how do you handle environments where someone else is providing a service and you don't control everything?
Actually, to be exact- you left a Flash Card of some sort on the front seat of an unlocked car. You come back, the Flash Card is still there. Somebody else copied it in the mean time, but you haven't lost anything- you still have the data on your flash card. Was it your fault that the data was copied?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I think it's going to come down to how the publicly accessible folders are generally used. If they're usually used for storage and the student never advertised the music, then they'll have a good chance of the case being dismissed on the grounds of no intent. However, if the folders are generally used for sharing music and there's a culture of everyone browsing and copying from everyone else's folders, then I would imagine the judge would find intent based on the music being in the folder.
I have no idea where you got that quote from, but whoever wrote it is referring to Fonovisa v. Does 1-41, where the RIAA was ordered, in 2004, to cease and desist from the illegal practice of joining multiple John Does for its own convenience in a single case. The RIAA has been ignoring that order ever since. This Boston case is yet another example of the RIAA ignoring the Fonovisa v. Does order.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Let's try a different take:
I make some modifications to my copy of Linux. I leave a copy of the compiled version in a directory that's accessible to anybody on the internet who knows where to look. When someone demands the source code, I tell him to go to hell because I'm not distributing anything. Can I get sued for violating the GPL?