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RIAA issues next wave warning against piracy
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by Ken Harris
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The University of Wisconsin received another wave of pre-litigation letters Friday from the Recording Industry Association of America for students who have been illegally downloading music from the Internet.
After not being targeted in the last wave of pre-litigation letters sent out the past February, the university received six letters from the RIAA last week and is in the process of analyzing the allegations to figure out who the students are, according to Brian Rust, UW Department of Information Technology spokesperson.
UW periodically receives letters from the RIAA that claim people using UW portals have been illegally downloading music and are being targeted by the trade group for civil action.
The university must then hand over names and contact information to the RIAA so they can pursue legal action. After fighting this practice and refusing to comply with the RIAA, a U.S. District Court judge last April ruled UW was legally obligated to provide the information.
UW also notifies the students they are being targeted and offers them advice on how to handle the situation legally.
According to Rust, he does not know the guidelines the RIAA uses to decide who to pursue for settlements, and they seem to be inconsistent.
“They’re going about this differently every time,” Rust said.
Rust added some of the students who received pre-litigation notices had received cease-and-desist letters at an earlier date and claimed to have cooperated with the demands, but others never received cease-and-desist orders to warn them to stop their illegal behavior.
“It’s not just inconsistent. … It’s confusing,” Rust said.
According to Rust, this inconsistency may drive students to just ignore the cease-and-desist letters or tell their friends to ignore them because it does not matter if you comply or not, as you can still be targeted for legal action.
Rust added he thinks schools are starting to treat the pre-litigation letters with more skepticism and hesitation. They are questioning whether the RIAA has the right to students’ information before it has been proven they committed any crime.
When reached for comment, lawyers for the RIAA could only confirm the UW System had received the pre-litigation letters.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 11:24am):
the RIAA needs to come up with better money making schemes. Targeting university students isn't going to stop the illegal downloading of music, especially when it is just as prevalent in other countries. Do they honestly think people are going to continue to buy CDs or even pay to download music? Talk about living in denial.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 11:46am):
I just "borrow" other peoples' wireless. o_O
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 10:41pm):
One of the girls on my floor last year got hit with a fine from the RIAA for downloading stuff...no thanks
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