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How the RIAA Targets Campus Copyright Violators

Posted by timothy on from the lures-them-in-with-jim-hawkins-dolls dept.

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."

6 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Re:RIAA "making available" by Danse · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sounds like entrapment to me, like the mafRIAA is "making avaible" the same mp3s they are accusing people of downloading... bastards. You can't entrap someone unless you're a government agent. They aren't suing people for downloading anyway, they're suing them for uploading.
    --
    It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
  2. Chicago ordinance will put an end to independents by VampireByte · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. Re:Could they not do the same with torrents? by number11 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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."

  4. Re:Harvard anyone? by SlickNic · · Score: 5, Informative

    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".
  5. The 3 key points in the article by NewYorkCountryLawyer · · Score: 5, Informative
    To my mind the key points in the article are:

    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

    the RIAA can tell only when a song is being offered for users to illegally download; investigators have no way of knowing when someone else is actually downloading the song.
    --
    Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
  6. Re:RIAA "making available" by MiKM · · Score: 3, Informative

    Programs like PeerGuardian already block IPs belonging to RIAA and friends.