Duke Demands Proof of Infringement From RIAA

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "According to a report at p2pnet, Duke University has told the RIAA that it will no longer forward the RIAA's 'early settlement' letters to its students unless the RIAA submits 'evidence that someone actually downloaded from that student,' and said that 'if the RIAA can't prove that actual illegal behavior occurred, then we're not going to comply.' While it is good news that a university is requiring the RIAA to put up or shut up, the forwarding — or not forwarding — of letters is pretty insignificant. What I want to know is this: 'When the RIAA comes knocking with its Star Chamber, ex parte, 'John Doe' litigation to get the students' identities, is the University going to go to bat for the students and fight the litigation on the ground that it's based on zero evidence, and on the ground that the students weren't given prior notice and an opportunity to be heard?' Over 1,000 infringement notices were sent to Duke students in the last year."

Comments

Why not earlier?

[Ethanol-fueled]

The question is, why the hell didn't universites see the RIAA's challenges for what they were(bullshit) and begin to fight against the RIAA for their students much sooner? Last I checked, students pay the tuition, not the *AA's.

Here's the top-25 universities which handed out copyright infringement notices during the 2006 - 2007 academic year.Note the geographic locations of the majority of the list.

1. Ohio University - 1,287
2. Purdue University - 1,068
3. University of Nebraska at Lincoln - 1,002
4. University of Tennessee at Knoxville - 959
5. University of South Carolina - 914
6. University of Massachusetts at Amherst - 897
7. Michigan State University - 753
8. Howard University - 572
9. North Carolina State University - 550
10. University of Wisconsin at Madison - 513
11. University of South Florida - 490
12. Syracuse University - 488
13. Northern Illinois University - 487
14. University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire - 473
15. Boston University - 470
16. Northern Michigan University - 457
17. Kent State University - 424
18. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - 400
19. University of Texas at Austin - 371
20. North Dakota State University - 360
21. Indiana University - 353
22. Western Kentucky University - 353
23. Seton Hall University - 338
24. Arizona State University - 336
25. Marshall University - 331

From the 2008 list we see that the RIAA seem to be bolder, but the trend as before remains the same, for the most part. Texas Christian university? Thou shalt not steal ;)

Re:Why not earlier?

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

So if the University says "bugger off" to the RIAA, why doesn't the RIAA go after the University as a contributor?

Because
(a) it has no legal basis for doing so, and
(b)universities fight back. The RIAA lawyers don't know what to do with people who fight back. Their game is picking on the defenseless.

Re:Why not earlier?

[Anonymous Coward]

Advice from Harvard perhaps? Whom, as you pointed out before, the RIAA seemed to be avoiding. Maybe they finally read the advice you sent out too. The government dropped those weighted hints that the universities should work against copyright infringement in an overly broad manner and threatened funding, but if institutions like Harvard who could live without government funding for prolonged periods of time are willing to take up the fight then other institutions are more willing to stand up with them perhaps.

Re:Why not earlier?

[Bigjeff5]

From what I understand, the RIAA doesn't have a specific name they are sending to, they get it down to a room at best, with a "John Doe".

Then they send a form letter with a settlement, and try to get the individual to give up who they are and pay up. It's more like mail fraud on the RIAA's end, really.

So if the mail isn't addressed to anyone, who isn't getting their mail?

Re:Why not earlier?

[Weaselmancer]

Damn straight. From your original post, let's do the math.

1287+1068+1002+959+914+897+753+572+550+513+490+488+487+473+470+457+424+400+371+360+353+353+338+336+331=14646 letters sent to the top 25 universities in 06-07.

14646*($3000) (the typical settlement amount) = $43,938,000

Sure beats working for a living, doesn't it? Greed personified.

Re:Why not earlier?

[esocid]

They don't literally send a letter addressed to "John Doe." They send a letter to the University with a time and IP address and ask the University to forward the letter to whichever person had that IP at the time. This is what Universities are so pissed about. They are the ones who have to investigate and provide proof that this person did what the MAFIAA's letter described. They put an undue burden on them and strong-arm them, and then the student into rolling because it's worked for this long.....Even though everyone knows the little proof that they have is most likely not even proof at all, or points the finger at the wrong person.
Now Duke is growing a pair and saying, 'you do your job and we'll do ours: provide education and experience.' This should have happened a long time ago, but at least it's happening, right?

Re:Why not earlier?

[hairyfeet]

The same spies that push porn spam while they "investigate" or that use automated "investigation" that can't tell the difference between a file sharer and a printer? Yeah I kinda doubt it is really costing them much for their "investigation work" there.

But let us be honest here,this has absolutely NOTHING to do with artists or creators,and is nothing but unrestrained greed from non producing middlemen. How else can you explain getting up in court and with a straight face saying Ripping your CD to your iPod isn't fair use because you didn't get prior "authorization"(in the form of giving them another check) first.

And finally,since we always have at least a few "get the dirty evil pirates" every time we have this conversation,I am going to say this again: There is NO WAY that anyone can stand up here and with a straight face say that copyrights are anything but broken. If you try,I have one sentence for you: Steamboat Willie is still under copyright. The man has been dead for half a century,and yet his FIRST work,one that was made when most cars had to be started with a freaking handcrank,is still under copyright. I think we can all agree that is severely fucked up. Copyright was supposed to be a contract,nothing more or less. We got a richer public domain in return for a LIMITED monopoly on a work. The fact that Steamboat Willie is still under copyright should prove the contract is broken and not worth the paper copyright laws were written on.

Dang

[Anonymous Coward]

For a minute there I thought this meant Duke Nukem Forever had been released, and it was about Duke fighting the RIAA in a court of law. Man, that would kick ass.

Too late....

[chefmayhem]

Now, if only Duke could retroactively do this. I know one of the people at Duke who got bullied into paying the RIAA money last year. Being an international student, he felt he couldn't risk having a lawsuit on his record, so he paid a few thousand dollars, stressed out about it, and I do believe his grades suffered as a result. Duke has a Law school. Why doesn't it (and other similar schools) just make defending students against the RIAA part of the law school curriculum? Sounds like great practice, and it would do some good!

Re:Too late....

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

make defending students against the RIAA part of the law school curriculum

I've never studied law in my life, but "RIAA Defence 101" is a course i'd sign up for!!!

Actually Prof. Nesson once assigned his students the task of drafting a motion to quash an RIAA subpoena. Now his law students are fighting the RIAA in SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum. Also law students at the University of Maine and University of San Francisco law schools have been fighting the RIAA, and I believe law students at the University of California are going to be getting into the act as well.

Re:Curious...

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

What do think about people who are pirating music and/or movies?

The term "piracy" in the world of copyright infringement means:
-large scale
-commercial
-running off of exact copies for commercial gain.

I have never met anyone who is doing that so I have no real opinion of them as people.

I have seen poor people going around in the streets selling pirated copies, and they do not seem like evil people. They seemed a lot more decent than the people I've seen from the RIAA. They don't even seem to be aware that what they are doing is contrary to copyright law.