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Collegiate Resistance To RIAA In Michigan
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "There are now at least three complaints being investigated in Michigan against the RIAA's unlicensed investigator, SafeNet a/k/a MediaSentry, one of which was filed by Central Michigan University itself. Two other complaints have been filed by students, one from Northern Michigan University and one from University of Michigan. This appears to be part of the growing sense of exasperation colleges and universities are feeling over the RIAA's harassment."
What are the penalties in Michigan for practicing as a private detective?
The law says, "A person violating this section is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 4 years or by a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both."
Ithaca College has already bent to the demands of the RIAA. Their administrators will release the information of any student to any organization claiming to be working for them. It's almost embarrassing. I hope this changes. I really do.
complaining that costs are an issue now will not impress judges who see a precedent in prior complience with RIAA demands.
Why?
This precedence is not the legal kind - rulings by other higher courts. It was simply cooperation on the part of the uni's.
Seems to me that just as strong an argument could be made that in the past the uni's complied with the MAFIAA's requests as (a) a show of good faith and (b) it was inexpensive and feasible to do so. Now that the MAFIAA's demands have become unreasonable and they are taking previous acts of cooperation for granted, the uni's should no longer feel obligated to cooperate.
Not that I disagree with your original premise that people who ought to be taking the mission of the university seriously have ignored it purely for budgetary reasons, just that past performance should not be a guarantee of future performance.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Irish+Punk makes no sense in venues without booze.
Just think of the uproar if you said "Blacks+Rap makes no sense in venues without watermelon and fried chicken". Aren't double standards great?
I think there is a significant difference. Watermelon and fried chicken are not integral parts of black musical culture, but negative stereotypes about said culture. They have nothing to do with rap music as far as I know.
On the other hand booze is a proud tradition among both the irish music and punk music cultures. Half of Flogging Molly's songs are about drinking. When a band is singing "Whiskey You're the Devil" or "Drunken Lullabies" or "Finnegan's Wake" and the band is discretely drinking dark liquid out of plastic cups... and you have nothing to cheers with and no shots to down, well it is sort of like listening to polka music without beer or a dance floor. It loses half the fun. A goodly number of their songs are traditional Irish drinking songs with specific spots for cheers, played with some faster beats and more nontraditional instruments.
Ray, Thanks for the updates -- with so little in the way of good things happening on various political and legal fronts, it is great that you spend the time to keep fellow readers informed and encouraged.
Thanks, Tasteless. But it's partly self interest. After spending so much time dealing with the RIAA ghouls, I have to have something to look forward to. Dealing with those guys can make you sour on the human race. Slashdot, on the other hand, makes me smile. Sometimes even laugh out loud. This is the fun part of my day.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Wasn't there a post here on /. last year about the RIAA actively avoiding Harvard because of its legal talent and financial ability to fight? I always thought that epitomized this corporate bullying.
Yes. Like all schoolyard bullies they are cowards, and fear those who are
not afraid
to fight
back.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Anyone?, anyone?
Abba did this -- set themselves up with an end-to-end operation and ended up as (rumour I've heard) one of the richest private corporations in the Nordic regions.
Ok, here's what you do. You find a good lawyer (no longer a contradiction in terms, thanks to NYCL) who knows a bit about corporate law. You don't need that much. Set up a company, limited liability sort of thing, whatever your lawyer recommends that fits within your budget to register and rational expectations for growth(you can always set up a bigger one and sell up to it if you end up needing a different governance model, probably -- YMMV depending on local laws and how you grow as a band). You talk to one of the more reputable accountancy firms and ask them to take you on as a client and find out what their terms will be (run those past your lawyer before you sign anything. In fact run *everything* from that point past your lawyer, including things you may have signed in the past that you thought weren't relevant).
Then you look at distribution media. If you want to flog CD's, find a local indie recording engineer and cut a master. Then you search out reputable CD pressing firms and get them to duplicate them. They can supply full kit including jewel case and graphics if you want, your artwork or theirs (but if you can afford Hipgnosis that's cool too).
At this point you have something to sell. You can send letters (return envelope and price list) and samples out to local record stores, coffee shops, fuel stops and other niche retailers and grow your business. Find a PC or laptop among the group and record everything you do. Don't let this job fall to one of the band members, unless they're unusually focused and don't mind sacrificing the practice, rehearsal and performance time to do this. If you're doing really well, really really well, then find a manager who's a manager and not an RIAA flack and get your lawyer to cut an agreement.
All up you're out a couple thousand for all of this. You might not get a return, audiences are fickle after all. But you might reach stardom too, become the next Savage Garden / Abba / Porcupine Tree or whatever genera, and you'll need that structure to keep the money from evaporating or going to the enemy. Do NOT sign *any* agreements without paying for a lawyer to read and explain just who gets what. In the legal and accounting professions, you do not want to go cheapest route, even if you did buy your first six-string at the five-and-dime.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
All of this is now relatively irrelevant.
The RIAA and MPAA bought themselves some of our representatives and they have added some Peer to Peer technology restrictions to the requirements that publicly funded colleges will have to abide by in order to get their money. This memo discusses it, but basically they will have to:
Disclose annually to students that file sharing is bad and illegal
Certify to the Secretary of Education the school will "effectively combat" copyrighted file sharing
Offer alternatives to "illegal filesharing"
Once again our representatives have sold out.
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/epo0815.pdf
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur