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How the RIAA Targets Campus Copyright Violators
jyosim writes "The Chronicle of Higher Ed got a briefing at RIAA headquarters on how the group catches pirates. They just use LimeWire and other software that pirates use, except that they've set up scripts to search for songs, grab IP numbers, and send out notices to college officials. They claim they don't target specific colleges, though many feel that they do."
It's peer to peer. How else is your client going to know what machine to communicate with?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Small music venues are being targeted in Chicago; it appears that the city wants to make sure the only live music shows are in large arenas. Who benefits? Let's see. No more opportunities for independent artists to perform. Hmmm, guess the only way to hear live music is to go to a huge arena to see some crappy pop act produced by riaa minions. So are laws like this being proposed in other cities? Is Chicago just the start? Is this the next step in music industry dominance?
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
That isn't how the whole music industry works. When any random band signs a typical contract with the "Big Nasty", they essentially own your soul. They own the music, possibly the band name, and likely the logo and art that go along with it... and they have the right to do pretty much anything they want with it. They are a predatory bunch. Imagine all of this, and THEN finding out that YOUR on the hook for production costs of your albums too. It should be a crime. Unfortunately, they have more money than God.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Where do they get off saying that they don't have the technical means to target? If they can tell what IPs belong to which schools then they absolutely have the means with which to target.
You're correct, but they're not suing people for downloading from the RIAA. It's the unauthorized people who are uploading that are illegally distributing the files.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
It's not copyright infringement if you're distributing your own material.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
Azerus has a section where you can see who is seeding and leaching. It shows IP info if I'm not mistaken. Can they not do this with Torrents?
Easily.
How does that differ from Limewire?
With a torrent there isn't any way to "see all of the songs that a given file sharer is offering to others", just that one. And in fact, most people only do a few torrents at a time, so even if the RIAA could detect them, it wouldn't sound very impressive. They'd prefer to be able to go into court and say, "Look at this list! This criminal mastermind was distributing 2000 files! But we're only asking money for the five that we actually downloaded."
Peerguardian
Peerguardian is better than nothing. But not by a lot. It maybe keeps the MafIAA from spotting you from their own IP address, but sometimes they neglect to inform PG when the IP numbers change. The MafIAA is perfectly capable of getting online via their local cable system (or one in Russia, for that matter, the tubes go everywhere), or registering a domain under an assumed name, or doing it from their mom's basement.
The poster meant the settlements the RIAA gets which do not have dubious legality. They are of course taxable and the poster is an idiot but that's another matter.
Harvard has yet to see a single take down notice or legal action seeking the identity of someone on the Harvard network as of 5-02-2008. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/riaa-says-harva.html
Saying "all faiths are equivalent" is akin to saying "all drugs are the same".
As far as I know, taxation of civil judgments is common. Certain awards are probably excluded from income, but not to the extent you seem to think so.
A quick google search has at least one law firm saying exactly this: Taxation of Legal Damages:
1. MediaSentry is a customer of Audible Magic software, the software in which Dr. Jacobson has an indirect financial interest, and uses Audible Magic software as part of its investigation. So when Dr. Jacobson testifies about how reliable MediaSentry is, he's talking about his customer, and when he testified that he doesn't know what their procedures are, he was lying.
2. The software process used by MediaSentry differs markedly from the way Richard Gabriel has sought to describe it in his representations to various courts.
3. Cara Duckworth, the RIAA's spokesperson, admits that
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Programs like PeerGuardian already block IPs belonging to RIAA and friends.