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University Bows to RIAAs Demands for Student Names
jcgam69 writes "Hours after a federal court judge ordered Oklahoma State University to show cause why it shouldn't be held in contempt for failing to respond to an RIAA subpoena, attorneys for the school e-mailed a list of students' names to the RIAA's attorneys. But now that the RIAA has what it wanted, the group is unsure about how to go about sending out its pre-litigation settlement letters. Some of the students are represented by an attorney, meaning that the RIAA is barred from contacting them directly."
A person who isn't all alone and easy to scare. Whatever should they do if someone has a defense and won't give up thier lunch money so easily?
I see no reason why universities should fight to protect the privacy of it's students in circumstances like this where a judge has pretty much given the approval for the plaintiffs actions. I would not want a uni to cave just because the MAFIAA contact them, but if a judge has reviewed their requests and then tells the uni to cough up the details, I tend to feel more comfortable with it.
I don't understand why universities dont just 'loose' these records. Is there a legal reason why records of student's online activity must be recorded? My university had a massive drive where all students could temporarily store their data. the drives were wiped clean every Friday. why not just wipe the students internet usage records every week or so?
I can't see what use that information is to the University, aside from handing it over to RIAA lawyers to screw over the very students who pay to go to that university.
you can't hand over evidence you don't have.
-I only code in BASIC.-
I think it is more a matter that the University is entrusted with a lot of your personal data (all network traffic, your social security number etc.). The University should fight to not release that information unless they are compelled, otherwise they are not being a good custodian of your information.
I would hate for a list of every dirty website I went to in open court only to be deemed innocent in the end.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
They might have mailed a list of names, but the important thing here is, are they the right names and were these the people actually sitting at the terminals requested at the time?
liqbase
...would be a headline which boils it down correct.
Wheter the judges order was ok in the first place is a diffrent story.
Sig? Where I go, I don't need
it is assumed that the University should help protect students from the consequences of their (potentially) illegal actions
So according to you, Universities should hand over lists of their students to anyone on demand? How about banks - I'd like to know how much is in your account. If you have too much money then you must have earned it illegally. Hey maybe I should have a look at your medical records too while I'm at it. Our studies show a positive correlation between piracy and type 2 diabetes...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Funny how the RIAA got what it wanted, only to them find themselves facing something they did not expect, a prepared defense with direct experience against their tactics. One could almost say that they've fallen into a classic military maneuver, put a small token defense up first to bring the enemys offense to the front, to have it fall back, leading the enemy onto terrain of ones choosing, where you then spring the trap. Classic Sun Tzu.
I see Xerxes vs 300 Spartans in a legal sense here, so long as the defense does not leave the goat path to open up their backs they will do well.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Where is the bully?
/. but to pass them up as a evil "bully" oppressing the poor users is insane. I prefer to call them a monopolistic, parasitic group screwing the creators of the music on one side and the listeners on the other, whilst using a powerful lobby to change the law in their favor to further their ambitions.
do you mean the group that is backed by national and international law, has legal precedence and is largely backed (albeit reluctantly) by the makers of the music being traded?
a better analogy would be school teacher who is about to punish the kid that nicked a mars bar from the tuck shop without paying.
we may not like the **AA here on
roll on the day when the radiohead model is accepted as a way to get rid of them once and for all.
Because innocent until proven guilty is the foundation of the american justice system, and the universities are the back bone of that justice system (teaching future lawyers, judges, politicians, ect.). The universities, perhapse even more than the average american or coorporations, have an obligation to fight what it views as a potentially unjust action, until such time that they are conviced the action is warrented.
So according to you, Universities should hand over lists of their students to anyone on demand?
How about to court orders? Like, you know, in this case.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
and unless you visiting all those dirty websites was somehow illegal, the university would be under no obligation to divulge any of that information. a legal subpoena would have to be based on evidence of illegal activity.
That's precisely why things will be much more interesting over the next 15-20 years. What better way to enter a business relationship than to kick your client in the teeth.
What I'm curious about, is how does an RIAA lawsuit affect a student's ability to pursue their education ? Is the cartel destroying someone's future career over a few hundred overplayed pop songs ? What does that say about the future of the nation ? We all agree that piracy is a crime, but does the punishment fit ?
Corporate America's obsession with instant profits will inevitably have a deleterious effect on tomorrow's economy. It's bad enough that students get pelted with dozens of credit cards and start their life in the red, now we're trying to tack on another few thousand dollars in RIAA settlements. The people who actually wind up paying for this are you and me. We pay when professionals increase their hourly rates, when basic food staples jump in price, heck we're paying it right now with the time spent debating these vengeful issues. Inflation is not an ethereal process that happens on a spreadsheet. The more we screw each other over, the stronger the elastic bounce-back to recover what was ours.
Greed begets greed.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Here, while most of the "online" activities are still fairly safe, camming movies in a theatre is now a crime and can net you jailtime. Interestingly, that law was pushed forward by one of our ministers who was fired for sleeping with a US Corp lobbiest, yet nobody ever reviewed the bills that she had pushed forth on their behalf...
IMHO movie cammers are idiots anyhow, but I think that our prison and justice system could be put to better use, and I'd rather not be arrested myself because somebody decided to nab me because my digital camera (which I tend to keep with me at most times) can do (crappy) video and some theatre thug decided it's close enough...
So according to you, Universities should hand over lists of their students to anyone on demand? How about banks - I'd like to know how much is in your account. If you have too much money then you must have earned it illegally. Hey maybe I should have a look at your medical records too while I'm at it. Our studies show a positive correlation between piracy and type 2 diabetes...
This is not "anyone on demand." To reverse your straw man, should businesses be allowed to break all the laws they want?
There was a legal request for these names, under enforcement by the court, and the University was still refusing. The University should not break the law to protect the accused. If there was a legal request made for my bank account information or medical records, I would expect the bank or medical officials to release my information. Why should they break the law to protect me? Corporations should not be able to pick and choose which laws to obey and which to ignore.
Yeah, like that will *ever* happen.
Like terrorists, they prefer "soft targets".
There is a war going on for your mind.
and they are violating multiple laws. We shall see how this comes out for the 11 students, and society will make even better laws to stop this kind of harassment. The recording industry is simply wrong and people know it.
I think it has been pretty obvious for a long time now that the RIAA members part of the music industry has been acting as a price fixing cartel, or to be legally fair, it gives an appearance of it, enough to question if it has occurred and remains ongoing. The cost of duplication onto plastic disk or downloaded bits is way lower than what they charge at retail, to a huge degree, and there doesn't seem to be normal price differences like one might expect in a truly competitive market that was being regulated adequately according to existing law. Now, I don't think it has been applied to them yet, but in a few other cases-precedent- private individuals through their lawyers have used RICO and sued the offending party (it was in reaction to businesses undercutting local competition via use of illegal immigrant labor), although normally that is a governmentally used tactic. That's another way to approach to the problem I haven't seen yet, but would certainly shake things up a little if it was. It would be a very expensive case to start obviously, but potential plaintiffs would be anyone who purchased a disk or a downloaded tune from any of the association's members through any service or outlet..and that's a lot of people and the total sums involved are pretty high.
Technology has changed radically within the last generation, new ways of content delivery have *dramatically* lowered the cost of making copies of digital bits and delivering them. The official "legal" prices don't seem to reflect what copies should or could cost in the marketplace, it looks artificially skewed to keep per unit pricing up to the same (relative) levels as when a few tunes had to be pressed into a large vinyl disk and physically trucked around, and that manufacturing process was a lot more expensive. In short, where are the one dollar CDs and 10-15 cent downloadable songs? Those prices would still result in tons of profit for the distributors, using the volume sales model, yet those level prices don't exist in the legal marketplace. It certainly gives the appearance of long term collusion and price fixing.