OPINION & EDITORIAL
File swapping 6 feet under?
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Also by Ryan Knickmeyer:
Related Stories:
- Just do it, DoIt (October 9, 2007)
- Music industry must tune up to reality (February 6, 2003)
- Practical Solution to the "Napster Problem" (December 8, 2003)
- Misguided music industry at fault for filesharing woes (October 2, 2003)
- Suing fish in a barrel (March 21, 2007)
by Ryan Knickmeyer
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
It is illegal to download one’s favorite music off of the internet without using a website that has been licensed to do so, but that has rarely stopped most people from downloading away.
However, one group, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has valiantly worked to protect the poor and starving recording artists around the country from these villains of the Internet. The problem for the RIAA is they discredit themselves by trying to punish people who fall quite a bit short of being the web pirates that are truly threatening the music industry.
The RIAA wants to dissuade those who partake in Internet piracy by finding the biggest offenders and suing them. So in that vein, the recording industry hunted down an internet user with the screen name “smittenedkitten,” a vile individual who was making nearly 700 pop, rap and rock songs available for download, and tracked that dangerous criminal down as being one Gertrude Walton.
Only problem is, the RIAA didn’t do quite enough detective work: Walton had been dead and buried well over a month before the RIAA claimed she was on the Internet providing others with all of that music.
That’s right: dead. I’m not a doctor and have never claimed to be one, but I would imagine that it is very difficult to use a computer once a person has passed away. However, as any good detective will tell you, it is possible that someone else was using Walton’s internet connection post mortem, which would explain this whole situation.
There is a problem with that theory though. Walton, who was 83 years old at the time of her death, was described by her daughter as someone who “hated computers.” Therefore, it would seem that Walton doesn’t exactly fit the mold of one of those dangerous internet pirates; in fact, she didn’t even have an internet connection for someone else to use after she was gone. So it would seem that the RIAA was barking up the wrong tree.
Mistakes happen, but this one could have been avoided before it got to be such a black eye for the RIAA. The recording industry warns those that they are about to sue with a letter before they file a lawsuit. When Walton’s daughter received the RIAA’s warning letter, she wrote back to let them know that they had probably made some error. The recording industry responded by filing suit.
“I believe that if music companies are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people,” Walton’s daughter Robin Chianumba told the AP. “I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park (where she is buried) to attend the hearing.”
Imagine that trial. Following the plaintiff’s arguments that are sure to be loaded with technical jargon about how the RIAA goes about finding the offenders and bringing forth their lawsuits it would be the defense’s turn to wow the jury. First they call Walton’s daughter who testifies that the 83-year old lady never owned a computer and probably wouldn’t have known how to use one.
After that emotionally charged testimony, they seal the deal by calling their second and final witness, the cemetery employee who buried Walton. Then in classic courtroom television drama the defense attorney slams his fist on the table and cries out that Walton couldn’t have committed the heinous crimes she was being accused of because she was stuck in the ground at that time.
Case closed. Judgment for the defendant.
Apparently the RIAA saw the impeding trial going much the same way and didn’t have any rookie lawyers to break in so it admitted that there had probably been some sort of mistake and that it would be dropping the charges.
With all of the other lawsuits that the RIAA has pursued in the past couple of years, it makes me wonder just how often the recording industry has used such shoddy work in determining who is out there distributing all of that music. Does it just toss lawsuits out there assuming that they will catch people who at one time or another have actually done something wrong? (I imagine on this campus there would be a large percentage of people who would be guilty of something.)
Instead of just accepting the lawsuits that the RIAA is dispensing, maybe people should start looking into just how their name came up in the “investigation.” Quite frankly, if the recording industry could peg Gertrude Walton as “smittenedkitten,” it is more than plausible that they haven’t always found the person that they were looking for.
Not only has the RIAA been trying to plug the hole in the dike with their fingers, but now they’re accusing the wrong people of committing the crimes. If the recording industry hopes to continue fighting piracy with any kind of legitimacy, they better start doing a little more research before they hand out anymore lawsuits.
Ryan Knickmeyer (rknickmeyer@badgerherald.com) is contributing sports editor.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 8:50am):
illegal is illegal. Stop listening to music you should be working and studying in school while you spend my tax dollars not listening to music. I hope you don't watch sports either as they are a waste of time as well. Stop wasting my financial aid tax dollars on sports watching and listening to music. Get back to work.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 9:13am):
Shit, I can't tell if that previous post was sarcastic or serious.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 11:13am):
Is it not possible to study and listen to music and watch sports? :D
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 12:06pm):
Hey, the IRS is just as stupid. I had an uncle who was wanted by the IRS for income tax evasion for 14 years, even though we told them he died that long ago. Then they tried to collect the back taxes they claim he owed from us. They even tried to seize his old house, which had since been sold to someone else less than a month after he died. What a bunch of morons!
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 2:43pm):
Stop wasting my tax dollars listening to music and watching sports. You sit there in college barely studying while you sail through because of your communist professors grade inflation. If you have time to watch sports you should be working to make some money to pay back the free ride that my tax money is giving you.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 2:46pm):
Stop wasting my tax dollars listening to music and watching sports. You sit there in college barely studying while you sail through because of your communist professors grade inflation. If you have time to watch sports you should be working to make some money to pay back the free ride that my tax money is giving you.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 3:01pm):
Most of the stuff I download is old stuff recorded by rock stars who are long dead. They're not making any money off it anymore, so what the fuck?
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 3:21pm):
I have a question to the guy who wants us all to work constantly. Do you work 16 hours a day, eat for 2, and sleep for 8? Oh, wait, you have leisure time? And you enjoy it? Wow!
Maybe all the people on social security and collecting Medicare should get jobs, so we don't have to pay taxes to help them. Please. Except for a few of us, we all pay a buttload of money to learn to do the things to make your uneducated family's life better. We engineer your roads, plan and operate your hospitals, develop your cars, and make sure your legal system works. To steal a line from Tyler Durden: Do not fuck with us.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 3:24pm):
Here's a big problem with the RIAA's campaign against piracy. They are doing it from the perspective of the rich artist. The people who are pissed about piracy who are actually the artists are the Metallicas of the world, who don't need the extra buck. All the up and coming bands who really don't have any money like the exposure.
The people who actually are damaged by this are the people who manufacture, package, etc. the records. For some reason the RIAA has not come from that slant though.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 3:44pm):
Jeez, I'm not getting a free ride! I will end up paying back everything I borrow, so shut the fuck up!
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 5:11pm):
Personally, I think it's cool to pirate music. Those rich fat cats are rich enough. What else do they want. Look at the inflated concert ticket prices. Serves 'em right for scamming their fans out of their hard-earned money. Oh, I'm a nobody unless I fork over two week's pay just to see Barbra Streisand or Paul McCartney, right? Gimme a break.
So keep on downloading and keep on file-sharing. Turnabout is fair play!
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 5:47pm):
Never mind the piracy. It's the Wisconsin Department of Tourism's blatant act of plagarism, where they rip off a Supergrass tune and use it as a commercial jingle! THAT is what pisses me off! If any government wants to fight piracy, they should set a good example and not rip off the artists whose music they are supposed to protect!
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 6:30pm):
Yeah, just like they ripped off the Budweiser jingle back in the early 80's. What a bunch of cheap assholes. I wouldn't spend a dime of my tourism dollars in a state that can't come up with its own original ideas.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 6:35pm):
"Do you work 16 hours a day, eat for 2, and sleep for 8?"
Yeah, you gotta love those 26 hour days.
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 6:57pm):
"Do not fuck with us."
Ooooooooh! Bad-ass college student talkin' tough! Doesn't want us to mess around! Yeah, just keep talkin' the talk, buttmunch. We're sooooo scared of the big bad UW-Madison student. He gonna open up a can o' whoop-ass!
Anonymous (February 8, 2005 @ 8:23pm):
I'll stop "stealing" their songs once they stop "stealing" my money.
