RIAA Demands Payments from College Students
Fri Mar 9, 2007 10:46AM EST
See Comments (832)
How would you like to get this email from your college kid, the one you're shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for to pay for his education?
"Hi Mom: The recording industry says I owe them $3,000 or they're going to sue me! Help!"
Help, indeed. As I wrote in a previous post, the Recording Industry Association of America is getting tough on illegal file sharing of copyrighted music, and taking aim where sharing music from the Internet is as common as Frisbees, college campuses.
The RIAA has sent letters to 50 Ohio University students telling them each to pay $3,000 for illegally shared music files to avoid lawsuits accusing them of stealing songs from the Internet, the AP reports. The association, which is stepping up its legal action on college campuses, has already sued more than 18,000 computers users since 2003, and more than 1,000 of them were computer users at 130 universities.
As Chris Null notes in his post on Steve Jobs' stand against Digital Rights Management (DRM), unwieldy restrictions on the use of purchased digital music, the recording industry association's litigious ways are going to destroy any remaining goodwill the music industry has with its customers.
Music services such as Ruckus and Napster are offering free music downloads while kids are in college to try to stem the flow of pirated songs on college campuses. But they come with restrictions that irk college students. The Ruckus songs must stay on your computer to be free; there's a fee to transfer them to MP3 players. And Napster offers free downloads to students—but the music is theirs to keep only while they're in school. If you want to keep a collection amassed during college, then you'll need to pay Napster in the end.
Seems the music industry's DRM approach is hitting a wall, but what's the answer? Maybe Amazon's rumored approach to sell unrestricted songs for a buck is the best shot. What do you think?
To help you mull it over:
Music Industry Steps Up Campus Complaints
Why College Kids Are Turning Down Free (Legal) Music
"Free" Music for College Kids
Amazon to Sell DRM-Free MP3s?
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Comments on RIAA Demands Payments from College Students
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Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
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27 Posted by cadnut on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse
The music industry is going down the drain, its seems that they are taking on a big brother approach to harass people, its like they want to charge you in the future to just listening to a song, they are a disgrace, they want too much control, they are losing money cause now music ha----- a wall in quality, and talent, so they take it out on people to make up for their losses in the no talent world they now created. That is why 80's music is getting more popular, because the talent back then, knew how to sing, and the quality was way better. They need to get a life. You can thank all this to Metallica since they are the biggest cry babies on the face of the earth who started all this copyright crap in the first place.
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28 Posted by ndskadsen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:34PM EDT Report Abuse
as said by g4 tv network and many others, they can't do anything. they have tried to sue but their case was always dismissed they are just greedy people, if they dont want to take music they shouldnt make it.
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29 Posted by flyboy711672005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:01PM EDT Report Abuse
Why dosn't somebody sue Myspace or other web sites for posting up song's for people to listen to as long as their loged onto the net? People could just record those and then turn around and sell em'. There is software for recording music on computer's that's played.
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30 Posted by m_gin on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse
Why doesn't the riaa fine artists that make crappy music.
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31 Posted by ellivhtims on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:53PM EDT Report Abuse
A national list of all musicians that will allow their music to be downloaded for free. If they are not on this list, then you have to pay to download their music. It would be interesting to see which list has the most record sales. Also, all of the old music that is not being recorded would be on the list or not.
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32 Posted by ndskadsen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:34PM EDT Report Abuse
they did stop posting music on myspace now you have to buy it
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33 Posted by jmoss54143 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:37PM EDT Report Abuse
well, this is just another way for big industry to stick it to the consumer. Maybe people would not be so likely to steal music is it did not cost 20$ to buy a cd, or if you did not need a credit card or checking account to get them off the internet. Last time I checked, students are still poor, and can't afford things like brand new CDs or don't have things like credit cards or checking accounts. All this restriction, in my opinion, is just another way to keep music for the rich kids (and adults), and keep the poor just that way, poor....sorry America...if you want to listen to music and you are poor, looks like you must choose music or food. Capitalism at its worse...thanks!
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34 Posted by prionbraineater on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Whoever wrote this article is a total bag. Lawsuits? Who the heck are you, for real. The music coalition giving out LAWSUITS to poor college kids? Who are you kidding? Technology. Its crazy these days.
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35 Posted by enjin95 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:55PM EDT Report Abuse
what ever happen to Kazaa and Limewire. I guess file sharing still has it's loop holes.
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36 Posted by nikolay_simov on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:38PM EDT Report Abuse
Here's a piece called "Courtney Love Does the Math" which eloquently points out who the real pirates are. Time to take the red pill :) http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/
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37 Posted by paladin_hammer on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:48PM EDT Report Abuse
People copy music anyway. Whether or not they're downloading it from websites or copying it while its on the radio, its going to happen.
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38 Posted by heatshield on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Thats why they're "offering" to settle for $3000... They sue for $20000+. It what has been a witch hunt for nearly 10 years now, they've wasted more from the hunt than they have from people downloading. I'll never buy a cd again... the radio's enough for me when I want to hear the crap they spew out of things like these American Idol winners.
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39 Posted by thien619 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:06PM EDT Report Abuse
Here we are again...awoodsom pretty much hits it right on the mark. This idea that the music industry is sinking due to the fact that pirated music is siphoning the life out of the record industry is absurd. Just becuase the download rates are up and cd sales are down doesn't mean they are relative. Even if it was (and it isn't), sueing kids at college will do what? Stop a fraction of a percent of people pirating music? Stop the free spreading of music that you get via those very kids that are being sued?
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40 Posted by bill_moore417 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:08PM EDT Report Abuse
It all rings hollow given the musics industrys historic theft of artists work and abuse of performers....Hippocrits and scumbbags all..
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41 Posted by mofbla on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:24PM EDT Report Abuse
I go to a campus that provides Ruckus to its students, and let me say it is junk. Every month it deletes all of the music you have or you have to renew the licenses, so expire with out telling you. The RIAA is beign to extreme. What's the difference between being able to download it online and borrowing somebody else's CD? Absolutely nothing. Its the same difference as taping something off of TV and downloading a movie. As frequently as the movie/music industry has been sued for price fixing, they really shouldn't complain that their profits are getting cut.
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42 Posted by eyecolumbus on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:57PM EDT Report Abuse
Isn't this a form of extortion? "Give me $3,000 or I'll sue you!" The record companies owe people free music to make up for all the crappy stuff they've been releasing and marketing to us over the years. I have albums that have been collecting dust for years because the one "hit" on it was the only way to obtain it. It's time that I be able to check the rest of the tracks out for free before being duped again. F you, record industry. you vampires.
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43 Posted by lizethemolina@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:54PM EDT Report Abuse
this is a complete joke. So many outlets available for students to access music on line. Dont see this changing anytime soon.
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44 Posted by mrsearchscam on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:28PM EDT Report Abuse
ahhh the RIAA is at it again the only reason the RIAA offers any deal at all is they dread one of these cases making it to court. if they ever catch some rich kid with a fleet of lawyers at his dosposal the riaa will be toast. all it takes is one savvy lawyer to pull out the Secret weapon! "The clean hands doctrine" and the RIAA goes away forever! CLEAN HANDS DOCTRINE - Under the clean hands doctrine, a person who has acted wrongly, either morally or legally - that is, who has 'unclean hands' - will not be helped by a court when complaining about the actions of someone else. Unclean hands can be used as an affirmative defense in cases where the complaint is equitable. I would say it is 100% clear the record industry is guilty of Price fixing ripping off artists payola and a host of other offenses. keeping that in mine they have no recourse. also it needs to be known that for every blank cd tape and other recordable media sold the riaa gets a slice off the top in case you record music. this constitutes payment for the act. and renders any music recorded on said media legal. if the riaa had a case they would nail people to the wall take them to trial and rape them and make an example but NO they extort money instead. a little advise for the kiddies out there. if you really want to share this crap they call music? use a proxy.
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45 Posted by singingsmartboy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:23PM EDT Report Abuse
If recording companies want students to stop downloading songs illegally, they should make music available to students at an afforable rate. It would be unethical to sell them at a high price and put up lawsuits against students.
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26 Posted by cyndy_lou_who on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:33PM EDT Report Abuse
First. It doesn't matter what it costs to file the lawsuit. When you sue, if you win your case, you can ask the court for all your court costs to be paid by the person you filed against. Second. The RIAA is a joke. Do they think that people have not forgotten that they got found guilty of price gouging. They were purposly making up the prices of albums so that they could make more money. Do they seriously think that just because most of the people who download music are too young to remember that happening there aren't people around who do?