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New TN Law Forces Universities To Patrol For Copyright Violations
CSMatt points with this excerpt from the EFF's page: "Last week, the RIAA celebrated the signing of a ridiculous new law in Tennessee that says: 'Each public and private institution of higher education in the state that has student residential computer networks shall: [...] [R]easonably attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the institution's computer and network resources, if such institution receives fifty (50) or more legally valid notices of infringement as prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 within the preceding year.' While the entertainment industry failed to get 'hard' requirements for universities in the Higher Education Act passed by Congress earlier this year, the RIAA succeeded in Tennessee (and is pushing in other states) with this provision that gives Big Content the ability to hold universities hostage through the use of infringement notices. Moreover, the new rules will cost Tennessee a pretty penny — in the cost review attached to the Tennessee bill, the state's Fiscal Review Committee estimates that the new obligations will initially cost the state a whopping $9.5 million for software, hardware, and personnel, with recurring annual costs of more than $1.5 million for personnel and maintenance."
How is this surprising? The recording industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in Nashville.
To be honest I can usually be a little uninformed about the RIAA and DRM and whatnot...
But come fu*king on! Why the hell would you spend millions of dollars on protection like this?? That money could sure as hell be spent elsewhere, since not only could the rest of the world use it but also even the USA themselves...
Slashdot user since
"...if such institution receives fifty (50) or more legally valid notices of infringement as prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998..."
According to a recently lawsuit against the RIAA on the legality of their tactics, I would question if the notices are legally valid or not.
Hopefully this will result in universities using more open source/copyleft stuff. Someone is shooting himself in the foot here.
Stop listening to garbage music that corporate America wants you to buy. Indie music is free and you can't be sued for downloading it freely, because it's offered as a promotional gimmick to sell concert tickets. Many Indie bands advocate people sharing purchased copies of their albums, because musicians know that this freely sharing of music creates more fans. Look at Radiohead... how much did they earn on that album they released as donor-ware?
Sure you can apply all the regulations you want but you're just excluding people from your products in the long run.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Sometimes I need some detachment from slashdot to be able to keep reading. I know it's stupid and insensitive and wrong on many levels but I have to say it.
News like this give me the same feelings as horrible wars in third world countries. The more I learn the more revulsion I feel and it reaches a point where I simply detach and start thinking about something else. I transport myself to the little world around myself where those things simply don't happen.
I know about the "...now they come after me and there's nobody else left to care." parable, but still, I need a beer and a quiet mind to deal with extreme evil, or, as in this case, with extreme idiocy/corruption.
It seems that they're more interested in protecting the music industry than supporting the education of their people.
Anyone want to predict what the outcome will be in about 20 years?
I'm the Network Admin for a large (albeit British) institution, and we have the responsibility for the content of our equipment. If it's on student equipment, it's not my problem, but I certainly won't allow a free-for-all on my network nor my servers. I'm not an idiot, I can tell when content is infringing copyright or not, and I'll deal with it.
Really.... "reasonably attempt" and only if there are fifty or more "legally valid" notices...
The kind of legislation made by lawyers to increase the amount of time they get to charge customers for litigation.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
If I were a university, I'd take this as my cue to disconnect the residential university network from the campus network and outsource the connectivity. The students would have to VPN in if they wanted access to campus services.
This would probably be cheaper than complying with this law, and even if it weren't, it would send a message to the lawmakers to be mindful of the law of unintended consequences.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Another approach to fighting RIAA and MPAA would be to create a kind of digital fingerprint process that would allow Indie bands and film makers to freely release their stuff over a closed P2P utilizing user accounts. This type of thing has been attempted in the past with great failure, but it's possible that with the proper interest, a push to exclude greedy practices from infiltrating P2P networks would be essential.
A theory of mine is that many record labels would want to release their stuff for free on P2P so that they can sue later and reap big rewards. That song used to generate $0.99 each, but after you seed it and nurture it, the windfall is $2500 for each song for each downloader.
Tell me this isn't happening!!!!!!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
This is just a hidden bail out of the music industry. They need a viable business model in the modern world.
Think Deeply.
If they aren't receiving state funds, then the state has no business putting this mandate on private institutions. Then again, this country has a long, sordid history of things like "attractive nuisance laws" like the ones which make people who have pools in their yards put up all sorts of fences to keep kids out of their yard (rather than arresting the kids for trespassing).
The population has access to all the democratic participation that they can afford.
At first I thought, "With the economy being what it is, I can't believe that a state would pass such an expensive statute." Then I remembered that Tennessee is the home of Nashville. So perhaps that is why the RIAA has so much pull there.
Proverbs 21:19
Stop buying music and movies. Yes that includes the ones in iTunes.
No mattr how loud you complain, if you still are giving them your money, nothing will get solved.
You have to be the change you want to see in the world - Ghandi
You know, the blues started in the south, too. There is a club in downtown Nashville with B.B. King's name on it, and other genres get recorded there, too.
How the US managed to pass a law that retroactively (and, therefore, unconstitutionally) extended copyright terms 10 years ago is beyond me, but it happened.
Oh please. If the mafia came after you for file sharing, you would be begging for lawyers and political hijinks.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Unless this law is struck down your uni will either do what the STATE wants or lose state support, perhaps accreditation, funding. This is a compliance issue now, not a "good luck" issue.
The state is not responsible for accreditation. We are not a state institution and do not rely on the state for any funding. The contention is between the development of our alumni relations (donations) and spending money on enforcing another organizations business model. I would be shocked if we voluntarily spent money we didn't have on something that we don't need, when we could spend it on pan handling our well heeled alumni.