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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827 Posted by protoolsballs on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:20PM EDT Report Abuse
LOL. I guess the difference between you and me is that before I act like I know what I'm talking about with a certain subject, I READ books and learn the subject. As far as letting your family borrow a cd and listen to it, of course that's not what we're talking about...once again your sense of making analogies is really scary. BUT, you are correct... like you said, this is about people copying cds and never buying.
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828 Posted by mardukslayeroftiamat on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:06PM EDT Report Abuse
What a joke, it would go in the trash if it came to my dorm. I can't believe that Yahoo! buys into this crap and actually prints such propaganda scare tactics.
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829 Posted by ritakristina on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:42PM EDT Report Abuse
I think this constitutes extortion on the part of the music industry. If they were interested in making legimate profit, they would stop Napster and any other company from making it possible to download music without fee. Do the companies that allow such downloads pay a fee to the record industry for the option? If I were an attorney, I would ride the current tide, then retaliate once local law and custom makes free downloading legal, then reverse the process in a class action suit against Napster, Limewire, and their ilk. Kristina
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830 Posted by medullaboi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:14PM EDT Report Abuse
I wouldnt pay a dime, I mean I wouldnt pay schit! The artists have enough money..
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831 Posted by djalan_2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:44PM EDT Report Abuse
Well, I suggest that those that want to toss it in the trash think twice... The thought that it will cost them $5000+ in legal fees to win is no good... Their lawyers don't get paid by the case, they get paid for working for them... Many of them get paid whether they do any work or not! So might as well put them to work, they're already on the payroll! Oh, and if they DO come after you with lawyers, your bill will NOT be $3000... It will be AT LEAST $3000 PLUS lawyers fees! Just quit ILLEGALLY aquiring music/movies/books/whatever and you won't have any problems... Simple... Oh, and to those wondering if you can 'give away' a CD after you bought it? Sure you can... As long as you don't: 1) SELL IT for a profit (more than you paid) 2) Make and keep a copy of it The RIAA could care less otherwise...
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832 Posted by texas_sweetie_pie2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:01PM EDT Report Abuse
my kids has been on my home computer. they download limewire and download songs to the computer and they put them into share folder. the record company is sueing me for $1000.00 and i want me to pay 88 a month. these people are going to get rich off of eveyone if they are sueing every single person. i got the paper back in oct to start paying them.
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826 Posted by robin_d_best on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:46PM EDT Report Abuse
Seriously, balls... You are saying that if I buy a cd of your music and I pass that CD around to everyone in my family, then I am stealing from you because each member of my family didn't pay a fee to hear the music you wrote? No, I don't get it. The problem comes from copying music and people never buying the music at all. It is a different world and no I don't get it at all. I honestly think if you can't get paid by people to perform your music and if you have been paid by someone who owns your music and if someone can't make money selling cds of that music then you need to go to Wal-Mart and get a job.