December 05, 2003
Wankers, Every One
Posted by nerdling | December 5, 2003 09:46 AM
So, CMJ posted this interesting tidbit about how the RIAA are busily trying to corner the college market by pressuring universities to monitor student file sharing activity on campus. Be sure to notice how reasonable their charges are, and how they plan to slip it past the the students:
The recording industry and digital music retailers are in discussions with various colleges and universities to offer legitimate sources of music to students, either for free or at a substantial discount, in exchange for the schools agreeing to take steps to deter piracy on campus networks. The goal of the agreement would be to provide students with an extensive online jukebox that would allow them to play songs on-demand. The typical $10-per-month charge would either be waived or buried in the students’ activities fees, and songs could be burned onto CDs or transferred to MP3 players for one dollar or less per track. Insiders hope the new concept can be launched as early as the beginning of 2004.
But now the RIAA are up to their old tricks again, according to antimusic.com:
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed 41 new copyright-infringement lawsuits against online music traders and issued warning letters to 90 more.
The RIAA, the trade group that represents the five major record labels, announced on Wednesday that they filed the lawsuit in various jurisdictions across the United States. This is the third time the trade group has filed suit against online music traders, bring the total number of people sued under this initiative to 382. [...]
The trade RIAA has already settled with 220 file traders that were the target of earlier action such as warning letters, lawsuits or notifications from the users ISP that the RIAA was attempting to obtaining their personal information. The average settlement amount has reportedly been around $3,000.
At this rate, they should alienate at least half of their target market by 2005.
