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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47 Posted by gravelandx88 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:12PM EDT Report Abuse
Its pointless that RIAA is stepping up there peneltes..Piracy is just going to go deeping underground to provide young listeners like myself to keep burning free music. Frankly, I'm not scared by all of this because RIAA can just kiss it, lol. There are hundreds of programs and hackers out there working hard to keep this world free from facist music industries from ingulfing us all in there high cost of CD's or music videos. RIAA CEO's, vice pres & pres. just needs to get a life! =P
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48 Posted by coffee300am on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
The 60's, 70's and 80's talent will never happen again. There hasn't been any real talent in the last 7 to 10 years. RAP turned into an alien type music that is not talent and steals cuts from other songs from the past and the MI keeps pushing these made up "stars" that have no natural talent and those come and go in a months period. American Idol is a joke. There just ain't any music anymore.
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49 Posted by dudedelux2003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:49PM EDT Report Abuse
This is Grand Theft Audio. Seriously, you offer to settle to avoid to have to pay your own legal fees. Who decided that 3K was an apropriate amount... across the board? Whaty happened to a good slap on the whrist first ? And where exactly is that money going anyway ? It's doubtful any musician will ever see a penny.
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50 Posted by someoddbot on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
Well lets see we can go to the store pay $15.00 - $20.00 for a single song and find out there is only one song on the whole cd that is worth a darn or we can go on the internet and buy a song that is stuck in MP4 format with a codec lock on it or we can just buy the song and build our own cd and tell the artist sorry you or your label really isn't worth what you being paid seems the average worker spends more on a single cd then most make in a single hour like a COLLEGE student there at school to learn and have some fun and should be entitled to download music and store it heck look at websites such as my space who will show you where you can get store and play your music not like we cant steal it off of there just as we do LIME WIRE , BEAR SHARE , and then it goes back to the old days we look at it in many manors we cant smoke POT but we can buy a PIPE , BONG , we cant record tapes but we can still buy REEL to REELS in the end we are danged if we do and were danged if we don't its a cruel world and we live in it wait we live in the USA where we are FREE hence were are not free we have LAWYERS writing our laws and not the public we pay for it in the end and how the heck you going to charge someone $3,000 for downloading music who died and let them just set a figure if I download 14 songs take me to court I'm giving you $18.00 the price of a darn cd not $3,000 goes back to the pirated era where ok we download software for free well seems allot wont disagree why am I going to pay $300.00 for some software that can only be used on my pc its not something I'm going to use everyday its not like a foot ball where we form a team and play a sport and then toss the ball around and can take it everywhere with us its not going to make my life any better or worse its just something to do so then we have to pay for bill gates to get richer and let the government allow it to happen so they can get there BIG TAX off it same as gas, food, and many other items we pay to much for like a car take a car from the 60's put it on the highway and let it hit a new car wow the new car is destroyed and the old car still goes and goes take 2 new cars made of ALUMINUM and crash them together oh wait now they need 2 new cars this country is going backwards and its not going at a slow rate and as long as we all sit back and take it there just going to keep giving it so stand up for your rights and steal that ----- who the heck cares most singers today cant sing and who cares if someone stole gun & roses music they don't sing for crap today and are old now so move on to something better like grown men sleeping with kids, and over crowded jails with people in it that shouldn't be and a war were stuck in that the congress wont declare so the soldiers can get medial and money when injured those are the real problems not a whiney little rich boy or girl crying because they only made THREE MILLION THIS YEAR heck I only made 22,000 SO LET ME WINE like a baby that They owe me money for
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51 Posted by alien.corp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse
heheh do they really think that will stop them? Wow whats the world gotten to?
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52 Posted by mrsearchscam on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:28PM EDT Report Abuse
The Ria has sued nobody to date not one single case had made it to a court of law. the RIAA would back out before risking a loss. a loss would set president and the riaa would be done.
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53 Posted by totalgraphix7777 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:18PM EDT Report Abuse
lets face it....people won't pay for what they can get for free. If artist's are to get paid for their creative work, then the makers of Kazaa, and Limewire will have to be held liable for the products they create. This isn't an issue of free speech, but an issue of free theft, and as long as the courts allow webservices to let people steal...oh excuse me, "share" what is obviously copyrighted material. Don't believe me ? go to a bittorrent site and search for the "most popular" torrents.....99.9% of whats there is copyrighted. Since artist's can no longer count on record sales to generate an income....this is why concert tickets are so expensive these days. No record can be successful without being advertised and promoted, which is expensive. This money has to made back so henceforth higher costs for everything else. Record companies then are less likely to sign artists, so we get less music.... Just listen to the copycat artists out there these days. No, I'm not in the music industry (for all you out there who will call me assume I am) , but I think it's only fair that is a writer's work, or a painter's work is protected against bootlegging, then so should a musician's work be protected.
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54 Posted by isomerize on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse
The RIAA is turning itself into just another four letter word. Litigation against college students is bad business no matter how you wrap it. They have pulled a clever trick by equating downloading music with stealing, but the reality has been that until i-Tunes music store, there was no legitimate way to "buy" mp3 files. The music industry created this file-sharing cottage industry through their own unwillingness to embrace a digital music format. Now, instead of admitting their mistake and giving people what they want, which is DRM-free music files at a reasonable price, they're stuck defending a litigation model that is completely unsustainable. How many half-drunk college kids are going to have to cough-up $3000 before one of them figures out a new way to circumvent the RIAA, just as before. In the end, all music will evolve into digital formats which will be DRM-free. It's just a matter of how many enemies the RIAA wants to make of it's customer base.
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55 Posted by someoddbot on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
man I could use more lines here I like to complain and cry like a rich person who gets paid to be told what to do and when they dont they sue everyone so ill finish that line seems 3,000 char's just is not enough , ( making me pay to much for a cd or product I didn't like that I cant take back because its OPEN
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56 Posted by totalgraphix7777 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:18PM EDT Report Abuse
I have a great idea...how about people just PAY FOR the music instead of stealing it ?
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57 Posted by calsanjose on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse
Its just a joke, nobody is stealing anything, if they would not have bought it in the first place.
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58 Posted by evo_fxrp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:56PM EDT Report Abuse
I am a musician and I see nothing that benifits the artists that created these songs. Only the record companies. I think the record company should be forced to proove the origin of each "illegally" downloaded song. Someone payed for the cd and uploaded it. Then another user down loaded it. Whats the difference in me buying a cd, and making a copy for my friends who arent paying? How about recording the songs off the radio, which is free, then sharing with your friends?
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59 Posted by chatboy782004 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:22PM EDT Report Abuse
Will Limewire come under fire for illegal music downloads? I've been using that program for almost two years, and I think I owe the recording industry thousands of dollars by now.
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60 Posted by _jbc_ on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:02PM EDT Report Abuse
Not every audio file or song is the property of RIAA component companies. There is plenty of public domain. So they had better be prepared to PROVE the file was indeed their property if challenged. I know I would crucify the m-f-ers if they dared to serve me in such a case. Might even name some files identically to popular ones with th same length and checksums to bate them into that corner.
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61 Posted by lostcontinentlib on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:57PM EDT Report Abuse
Serves the "everything I want should be free" generations right! When they get out of college and grow up and have to make a living, they'll suddenly have a new appreciation for the marketplace.
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62 Posted by lgodfried on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:50PM EDT Report Abuse
The one thing the RIAA will never be able to sue against is recording music as it plays. That's precisely what makes video recordings of television programming legal. Anything you can see or hear that comes into your home, be it by satellite, broadcast, or otherwise, can be recorded under "fair use" for personal use.
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63 Posted by nickdc1960 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:37PM EDT Report Abuse
When are young people going to wise-up? I mean, really wise-up? Madison Avenue keeps turning-out crap for kids to listen to, and they still embrace it? The reason why the coporate "suites" can afford to send those nasty notices is because the young people have empowered them. Here's a novel idea. How about boycotting the major record labels? And, the major media outlets that own those record companies? There is NO WAY that you are going to tell me that there are not some really good up and coming bands that would be happy if each member of their rock group earned, say, $100,000 a year? Then, why are the young people feeding these so-called "stars" millions of dollars to buy their crappy music. I am 46 years old and can remember the same thing happening to me in the 1970s! They wanted $10 for a lousy LP that only had 2 good songs on it out of 15 cuts. Wake-up and smell the coffee. Take your business and your listening pleasure to where it blongs, other young musicians that need and want fans, and not be ruled-over by the multi-billion dollar neon monoliths of Wall Street.
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64 Posted by clivechang8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
The only thing turning me away from online music is the low bitrate....128 just doesnt cut it a lot of times and at higher volumes there is considerable noise and or static....maybe its just cuz im an audiophile x_x
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65 Posted by demonicavonsin on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse
What irritates me the most about the RIAA is that the people they really should go after, they don't. Years ago I worked at a cd store and the general manager was making copies of cd's on his home computer and selling them in the stores. All the stores in the district got copies of these burned cd's and the price tags being slapped on these cd's were upwards of $30. I called the RIAA and reported this; even sent in a copy of a cd to the RIAA...Know what they did??? NOTHING.
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46 Posted by william_clancey on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:46PM EDT Report Abuse
The RIAA can sue as many people as they want, its gonna stop the flow of free music. As long as the interent exists open source software and free media files will exists, thats half the reason the internet was created. My only hope that that eventually the US justice system decides to put a stop to these rediculous law suits. I know this isn't gonna stop me from doing it. This is the digital age, it can't be stopped. The RIAA is standing alone and fighting a losing battle. They are a relic of a by gone era, there's no place for them in the modern world, they should just do everyone a favor and go away.