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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67 Posted by asilaypenis on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:58PM EDT Report Abuse
What a bunch of crooks. I'm sorry, I think it's a joke for record companies to target kids like this,when they pay their artists as little as they do. If a band is lucky,they will make a dollar off a 12 dollar cd. Most don't even make that much. Becoming an Eminem or Micheal Jackson where you sell enough albums to make a lot of money is very rare. Most bands,unless you sell over 1 million albums will never see much money from their record sales. This is because the way labels recoup money from many of their artists is borderline criminal. If the artists were making even just a reasonable amount of money (say,1/4 or 1/3 of each cd) I'd be a tad more sympathetic to the RIAA.
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68 Posted by totalgraphix7777 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:18PM EDT Report Abuse
It's interesting that people here are making all these ethical arguments against the record companies. Any business has a right to make a profit, no one however has a right to take a product without paying for it. Downloading music (or "sharing" it as some people like to sugarcoat it) without paying the artist for it IS STEALING. If you don't like the price...don't buy it. If cds all cost $1, people would say thats too much, and keep stealing, oh i'm sorry "sharing" copyrighted material. So let's cut the "record companies are unethical" crap. Bootlegging is what's really unethical.
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69 Posted by snj_boardmember on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:30PM EDT Report Abuse
Good... The MPAA needs to do the same.
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70 Posted by jmustangv on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:37PM EDT Report Abuse
College students have enough to worry about. Recording companies should at least discount thier product so students can afford it. Being a college student myself I buy from Itunes though they are pricy and I can see why my PC owning counterparts would prefer pirating. When it come down to the facts the record companies are ruthless greedy ----- s who do not care about anything other than thier greasy money.
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71 Posted by lmn0b on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:55PM EDT Report Abuse
One word. Torrents. Screw this Napster stuff. Like a band? Download their entire discography. No searching for obscure songs. Torrent search that sucker and download away!!
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72 Posted by hosebeast27 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:20PM EDT Report Abuse
The RIAA is just shooting themselves in the foot by doing this. If the artists depend on consumers buying their albums then what's the point of alienating them? It's all about the money with them anyways and not about the actual art of making and enjoying music. Screw 'em!!!
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73 Posted by f4est_escobedo on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:57PM EDT Report Abuse
I think this is completely wrong. It is a prime idea of why capitalism is flawed. It is sad that we live in a country where a corporation can take thousands of dollars from innocent students for wanting to listen to a few songs.
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74 Posted by kingsnkali on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:51PM EDT Report Abuse
The old adage, "you get what you pay for" applies here. You want free music then expect crap for new music and artists! I have no sympathy for pampered college students who just want to freeload off the creativity and hard work of artists. And today's music is about as low quality as it has ever been. Yes, there is a connection folks.
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75 Posted by lobsterclawhandjob on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:55PM EDT Report Abuse
Music shouldn't be an industry. Only in a capitalistic nation would something like Music be used to make money. Greedy ----- swines.
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76 Posted by beatrice25 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse
I think the RIAA is making more enemies with this fear mongering. The artists get ripped off by them (most musicians make their money touring, not selling CDs --- did anyone see TLC's Behind the Music? Artists get a penny per CD). And now they are trying to gouge fans. They should really learn to embrace the future of technology and get over it.
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77 Posted by johnlllin on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse
Pirated music is taking monies out of the RIAA's pockect,but it is also effecting the lives of people that you cant imagine. It is hurting families that have nothing to do with the RIAA.I work in the printing and binding industry,the company that I work for has laid off 10 salaried and 45 hourly workers due to reduced sales of music cds and video dvds.So far to this date everything that I have read on this subject states that the people who are being fined have downloaded thousands of songs illegally.There was also a time that and original copy was purchased first before copies were made .Sure you have the argument that "But I only like one song on the cd"well then please by every means buy the one song legally
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78 Posted by decrease911 on Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:07AM EDT Report Abuse
being a musician myself in all honesty no musicians get ripped off when music is pirated online vs. being bought on napster etc. sure back in the day if someone ripped a cd, then you got hurt a little. now its just the record label corporations that get hurt... musicians make money based on cds they sell, thats it (if theyre small enough for a few downloads to hurt them). haha i would tear up the letter too.. most of the music i have is from bands not signed to RIAA records...
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79 Posted by trevrepnkuf on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:21PM EDT Report Abuse
The RIAA needs to accept the fact that the internet is a newer technology that makes sharing music much easier. I remember years ago lending my cassettes and cds to friends to copy and visa versa...or listening to a radio station all day long just to record my favorite song. There was nothing wrong with that!! So, other than the technology we use to do it now...whats the freakin' difference??!! The only people concerned about this matter are people that work for the RIAA, which is what percent of the internets population? Compared to the rest of the population of the world that doesn't really give a ----- and probably 90% of those people are involved with file sharing anyway. So, since when does the minority rule???? Newer technologies overcome older technologies every day and the people of the RIAA just need to find other ways of making money other than by suing college students and other people for downloading music. File sharing is pretty much something that is here to stay and to make money by slapping people with steep fines is not what the RIAA should be about!!
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80 Posted by french_connection_s_a on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Suing kids in colleges just shows you how desperate they are and that they can't do anything else. whay don't they sue the rest of the world on Emule, because they technically can't. You even have commercial sites like www.allofmp3.com that defy the RIAA. Again all they do is attack the weakest they can find such as college students. I download everything from software to movies and music on emule, how come I nev er receive anything ? Because I'm not in the USA. They won't be able to change anything if they only can sue in the U.S.
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81 Posted by ola13niyan on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:44PM EDT Report Abuse
When it comes down to it the usage of the internet cannot be governed. So the RIAA is bsically wasting thier time, there are soo many ways to download music to your computer free of charge, its called advancement in technology and were only going foward!
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82 Posted by ckrip_killah360 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:26PM EDT Report Abuse
if its illegal how can they sue?
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83 Posted by rainbows4evr2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:27PM EDT Report Abuse
Touchy situation. Too bad for both sides. I'm a musician, make a living with my skills, so I can see both sides. Still in the past before computers, people recorded radio music and music off of records and the music industry seemed to be a very strong industry then, and I'm betting it hasn't really changed. (except some of the "music" they have out today really isn't music.)
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84 Posted by someoldguy77 on Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:08AM EDT Report Abuse
I hate to say this but I side with these companies. Why is it that every time we have something that really rocks, like expression through music, someone comes up with a way screw things up. I'm one for paying for a cd if I really like the music. I want the artist and the companies who promote and produce these cd's to be able to profit from their effort. I also think its their responsibility to make sure that music can be circulated at a fair price. Is that the failure here? Whats a good cd worth to a student, not what they are being sold for now, but instead whats a cd really worth? At what price would college students fork over the cash instead of becoming theives? 19.95, 15.95, 9.95, 5.95, 1.95, .95 .50/cd? I guess somewhere theres a sweet spot for these potential student customers! We can't accept stealing though. That will ruin the entire industry. Next thing you know they'll be putting advertisements in cd's and thats when I stop buying. Its also why I stopped listening to the radio. Its why I'm about frustrated enough to cancell my cable, I'm tired of paying a steepe cable bill to see advertisements every five minutes! I might stop puching these stinling keys and do all of you a favor, in fact
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85 Posted by sjkrause1218 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:25PM EDT Report Abuse
its easier just to download a cd in 2 seconds off dc++ then to drive to a store 10 minutes away and have to pay $15-20 dollars.
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66 Posted by deadmanserve on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:39PM EDT Report Abuse
haha they only talk bout napster n ruckus but there are soooooooooooooooo many more different web sites that people use that are for free.