RIAA sues campus file-swappers from multiple universities

[wessman]

RIAA sues campus file-swappers
By John Borland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 3, 2003, 3:13 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-995429.html

The recording industry has stepped up its campaign against campus music swapping, filing suit against four university students who operated file-search services on their school's internal networks.

The lawsuits, filed against two students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and one each at Princeton University and Michigan Technological University, ratchet up the pressure that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently has been putting on universities to block campus file-trading. The trade group still has not filed suit against average file-swappers who use more common services such as Kazaa, however.

"The people who run these (campus) networks know full well what they are doing--operating a sophisticated network designed to enable widespread music thievery," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "The lawsuits we’ve filed represent an appropriate step given the seriousness of the offense.”

University students have been widely viewed as the core of the various file-swapping networks ever since the appearance of Napster on the digital scene in late 1999. Universities have seen half or more of their network bandwidth used by people uploading and downloading songs, software and movies over the past few years.

Schools have attempted to crack down on the practice of file swapping in various ways, ranging from blocking network traffic associated with Napster or Kazaa to confiscating computers used to trade files. In a recent congressional hearing, some lawmakers called for criminal prosecutions for campus file-swappers.

In its lawsuits, the RIAA compares the use of the campus search software--variously called "Phynd," "Flatlan" or "Direct Connect"--to the defunct Napster service, dubbing the services "local area Napster networks." In fact, the technology used by the three pieces of software varies widely, sometimes looking very different than the old Napster model.

Direct Connect resembles Napster most closely, allowing users to connect to a central server, search one another's hard drives and download files from one another.

Flatlan, by contrast, lets a student set up a search engine --often on an ordinary dorm room PC--that scours all computers connected to a campus network that have Windows file-sharing turned on. Unlike Napster or Kazaa, which helped create a network of computers that would not have existed otherwise, Flatlan searches a network that already exists.

Phynd is a generic search engine technology that lets users configure it to search whatever they want, including FTP sites, Web sites or local files such as those found on a college network.

"Dan," a university student who runs a "Flatlan"-style server but has not been sued, said the RIAA is missing critical differences in the file-sharing technologies. He asked that his full name and the name of his university not be used.

"With or without these services, people would be able to share these files," the student said. "It's Microsoft that's allowing people to share these files; we're just accessing public information."

That difference in technology may or may not have any effect in court, attorneys said.

"It does seem like all it's doing is indexing resources that are available on a network that people are already a part of," said Fred Von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group that has defended file-swapping companies in court against the RIAA. "It doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with building a tool to do that. And it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with running that tool."

Where the students could run into shadier legal territory is when those indexes and search results come back loaded with MP3 files, Lohmann said. According to the RIAA lawsuits, several of the students also maintained archives of hundreds of songs on their own machines.

The RIAA said that the difference in technologies didn't matter.

The differences are "irrelevant from a copyright perspective," said RIAA Senior Vice President Matt Oppenheim. "All of these are networks created for one purpose and are being used for infringement."

All the lawsuits were filed in federal court. The RIAA had not contacted any of the students before filing the suits, Oppenheim said.


Related News:

RIAA turns up heat on file-trading at work March 18, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-993143.html

Verizon, RIAA spar over second subpoena March 10, 2003
http://news.com.com/2110-1028-991899.html

Congress targets P2P piracy on campus February 26, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-986143.html

Get this story's "Big Picture"
http://news.com.com/2104-1027-995429.html

Copyright ©1995-2003 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Digital Bliss]

Damn it they know about Direct Connect *sighs*

[wessman]

RIAA Seeks Estimated $97.8 Billion From MTU Student
from the can-you-take-a-check dept.
posted by michael on Saturday April 05, @15:56 (money)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/05/1931233

theodp writes "The Detroit Free Press [1]does the math on the damages [2]sought by the RIAA from the Michigan Technological University student. The total? About $97.8 trillion--yes, trillion with a T--or enough money to buy every CD sold in America last year over again for the next 120,000 years, according to RIAA statistics." Update: 04/05 21:58 GMT by M: The Free Press can do the math, but not very well: the numbers provided show the RIAA is seeking some $97 billion dollars, not trillion. I'm sure the student is *much* happier. Headline updated.

Links:
1. http://www.freep.com/money/tech/newman5_20030405.htm
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/03/2312220&tid=141


HEATHER NEWMAN: Recording industry has warning: File-sharers have to face the music
BY HEATHER NEWMAN, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
April 5, 2003

Getting it straight

Heather Newman’s column in Saturday’s paper erroneously described the theoretical maximum amount for which the Recording Industry Association of America was suing Michigan Technological University student Joseph Nievelt. The total should have been $97.8 billion.

Lawsuits against four college students accused of trading copyrighted songs are the biggest punch yet by the recording industry against its core audience, and has experts worried that the next step will be suing the colleges themselves.

The Recording Industry Association of America filed the suits Thursday in three federal courts, naming one student each at Michigan Technological University and Princeton University and two others from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who ran Napster-like file-sharing services on their campus computer networks.

The damages sought by the suits are astronomical: $150,000 per song, the maximum allowed by law. Multiply that by the 652,000 or so songs the RIAA alleges student Joseph Nievelt offered to other Michigan Tech students on his service, and the scope of the suit is clear.

That total? About $97.8 trillion -- yes, trillion with a T -- or enough money to buy every CD sold in America last year over again for the next 120,000 years, according to RIAA statistics. And that's just Nievelt's case.

RIAA senior vice president for business and legal affairs Matthew Oppenheim said the suits are intended to send a clear message to anyone running these types of services that punishment will be swift and severe.

Experts say they worry that the students, who are unlikely to actually have to pay those soaring sums, won't always be the sole targets of the RIAA's notoriously aggressive copyright defenses.

The RIAA has traditionally encouraged colleges to work with it and other industry groups, sending two letters in the past six months to university presidents urging them to take action against student violators.

But Oppenheim said he also expected Thursday's suits to be a notice to colleges officials who haven't kept track of what's happening on their networks. These weren't small violations, he stresses, and at this scale, the amount of Internet traffic generated by one account is huge.

His group didn't send its standard cease-and-desist letter to Michigan Tech before filing suit, something that Michigan Tech officials have publicly complained about. But this wasn't a typical situation, he said.

"Going forward, I wouldn't think there was a university in the country that wouldn't notice this kind of activity on their servers," he said. "My guess is universities are going to be much more concerned than they have in the past. I don't think any university wants to see their students sued."

It's not that easy, said Michigan Tech spokeswoman Marcia Goodrich, who said the school has gone the extra mile in cooperating with copyright groups.

"Now it's like, why did we go through all the trouble to work with you guys?" she said. Students operate more than 10,000 Web sites, she said. The university deals with 80,000 scans a day by potential hackers. And school officials have investigated nearly 80 complaints against students this year, putting nearly 60 on probation and taking other disciplinary measures.

And that's where things get legally sticky for universities, said Virginia Rezmierski, adjunct associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

She said she thinks schools have made a mistake by cooperating with investigators and shutting down students who have been the subject of prior cease-and-desist letters from the RIAA and other organizations.

"If you agree that you're liable in any way, then you have no alternative to monitor the networks," she said. "You're putting yourself in a position that you can't possibly fulfill."

Even if that were technically possible with the staff the universities have, monitoring the flow of information on college networks is contrary to everything schools of higher education are about, she said. "We're providing this access as part of an environment for learning and teaching. It's used by a growing, learning community," she said.

And the RIAA's lawsuits against the students and others who operate file-sharing systems? "The purpose is intimidation," said Rezmierski, "and they're winning."

Published reports said the RIAA got the names of the four students from articles in college newspapers. Andrew Dobos, editor in chief of the Michigan Tech Lode, said that while he found an article decrying piracy in his archives, he found none that mention Nievelt specifically.

"The general consensus is that it's horse manure," he said, adding that the penalties were too high. "Even if he was doing that, I don't see that any member of the recording industry is hurting as a result of what these students have done. If he's like an average student, he maybe makes $4,000 a year -- and these rich people are suing him for all this money? How heartless do you have to be?"

"Stealing is stealing," Oppenheim said. "Those are major, significant networks. This was a student who created a piracy bazaar."

© copyright 2003 Detroit Free Press

[wessman]

Does anybody else here think that Hilary Rosen left the RIAA because of not just RIAA failure to control P2P the way the major label execs wanted her to, but also because she herself realizes what a stupid battle this is to have with your own customers?

[tipple]

RIAA Seeks Estimated $97.8 Billion From MTU Student
from the can-you-take-a-check dept.
posted by michael on Saturday April 05, @15:56 (money)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/05/1931233


Yeah.... This is realistic... Even if this guy becomes the CEO of General Electric he wouldn't be able to pay a levy like this. So What is the point?

[Wolfie]

Sounds like the same tactic as sueing verizon to get identity of that John Doe guy so they can sue him. They just picked ppl at random so it might scare off other ppl from downloading. As far the money is concerned I don't think they are that stupid to think they'll get any money out of these guys in terms of compensation so technically they took an additional loss sueing these guys too (on court costs).

[Theinfamousone]

You know it Woflie, they will win only in the fact that they will scare people away from P2P networks. All of you people saying " there is x amount of users on Kazaa, they can't stop it". Well, the reason Kazaa is such a good network is because people are either too stupid or have no reason to disable file sharing for the most part, as soon as people hear they will have to pay $100 billion for sharing, they'll stop in a hurry.

Plus, college campuses are about the only place where uploading surpasses the downloading, therefore, once college students get shut down, atleast a good half of the upload power will be gone from P2P networks. With more and more ISPs limiting bandwidth (1 gig per day for instance), P2P could start getting to look like Winmx. (Yes I've mentioned this before)

[wessman]

Analysis of RIAA vs Princeton Student
from the dan-peng's-empire-of-evil dept.
posted by timothy on Monday April 07, @22:20 (doj)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/08/0145252

An anonymous reader submits: "Joe Barillari, a computer science student studying under [0]Prof. Ed Felten, posted an analysis on [1]his blog of the [2]lawsuit filed by the RIAA against a Princeton college student for running [3]"Napster-like" networks. He argues that the case doesn't quite live up to its contributory infringement claim due to limitations in the [4]DMCA. A good read!"

Links:
0. http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/31/125215&tid=158
1. http://barillari.org/blog/2003/04/07#riaa-vs-peng
2. http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/riaa/arcopeng40303njcmp.pdf
3. http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=629
4. http://barillari.org/papers/peng/peng.html#dmcadefense


RIAA Moves Against Operators Of Pirate P2P Systems Housed On Internal College Networks

WASHINGTON -- Moving to combat a growing and alarming piracy trend on some college campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today filed lawsuits against the operators of four Napster-like internal campus networks that illegally distribute millions of copyrighted songs.

The targeted systems operate similarly to the pirate peer-to-peer network Napster -- the online service found by a U.S. court in 2001 to have engaged in wholesale copyright infringement -- but instead of being open to anyone with access to the Internet, they reside on a specific college's internal computer network, known also as a "local area network."

"These systems are best described as 'local area Napster networks,'" said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA. "The court ruled that Napster was illegal and shut it down. These systems are just as illegal and operate in just the same manner. And just like Napster, they hurt artists, musicians, songwriters, those who invest in their work and the thousands of others who work to bring music to the public."

"This is a particularly flagrant way to illegally distribute millions of copyrighted works over the Internet," added Sherman. "The people who run these Napster networks know full well what they are doing ? operating a sophisticated network designed to enable widespread music thievery. The lawsuits we've filed represent an appropriate step given the seriousness of the offense."

The perpetrators of these internal Napster networks named in the suits filed by the RIAA make use of software known variously as Flatlan, Phynd or Direct Connect. All of them work much like Napster, centrally indexing and processing search requests for copyrighted works. And they permit users to download any of those works with the single click of a mouse.

Because of the sophistication of the technology and the expertise needed to install and manage such systems, Napster network operators can't help but be aware of the copyright infringement they facilitate. Indeed, each of the accused operators has seeded his services with hundreds -- and in some cases, thousands -- of copyrighted works. And in fact, they often monitor the infringement and, in several instances, have publicly bragged about it.

Given their bandwidth and high-speed connections, college computer networks are a frequent haven for illegal file-copying. As a result, many have become so clogged -- often because of file-copying by users from outside of the college community -- that such legitimate uses of the network as email or academic research have dramatically slowed.

The network operators sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement are from the following schools: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) [two individuals], Princeton University, and Michigan Technological University.

Sherman said that the RIAA will continue to investigate these types of services on college networks and that anyone with knowledge of such systems should report them to RIAA's music piracy hotline, 1-800-BAD-BEAT. "We hope that these suits serve as a stiff deterrent to anyone who is operating or considering setting up a similar system."

The RIAA's president also praised the higher education community for the steps that many colleges and universities are taking proactively to address the problem of peer-to-peer infringement on campus. Leaders from the university community have formed with representatives of copyright owners a Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities. "We look forward to continuing our important work with leaders from the higher education community. Our joint efforts have already yielded progress in addressing the epidemic of piracy on college campuses."

"Though these suits were necessitated by the alarming speed and egregiousness of these local area Napster networks, they should in no way detract from the important successes that the Joint Committee is accomplishing," Sherman added. "The seriousness of this problem requires us to act quickly to send a loud and clear message that this kind of activity is illegal and has consequences."

The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review - - state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum?, and Diamond sales awards, Los Premios De Oro y Platino?, an award celebrating Latin music sales.

[NDGAARONDI]

If the RIAA wanted to shut down p2p a better way why not target the actual systems themselves and not individuals? Sueing individuals may result in very little compensation (costs weighing more), wastes court time, unethical for a giant company to sue a student. And the only thing I can think of if this happened in England is that the court would order an injunction, to stop using p2p, which will be a waste of time.

You can't get blood out of a stone, so you can't order student to pay more than he has.

Who are the lawyers for RIAA? I think they need training!

If RIAA continued they'll be tons of court cases involving them.

RIAA v Smith, RIAA v Jones..................... Really!

[perls]

Here's a real world example for you.

I'm a music producer, I make money off of single and compilation sales.

Check my web site www.alexanderperls.com. I've got something on the German charts now, distributed by BMG. The German music market is falling through the ground right now. Why? Piracy.

I'm making dance music, my single is on the satelite radio charts in the USA, but the kind of labels that put out this stuff in the USA are going out of business. In fact, my track was licensed on Ministry of Sound USA last year, but then the label went out of business. Why? Piracy.

I just had a music piracy web site shut down -- www.danceparadise.ca becuse the web master was posting my tracks. I'm now planning on working together with a bunch of other producers in Europe who are similarly affected like I am, and we're going to start taking action.

It's really funny, I get emails all the time from people who 'love my music', and more often then not, they never even dreamed of purchasing the CD. Now I tell them to go @#%@#$ themsleves. This is war.

If any of you run web piracy web sites, please send me an email because it will give me great pleasure to do battle with you.

AP

[Wolfie]

Originally posted by perls
Here's a real world example for you.

I'm a music producer, I make money off of single and compilation sales.

Check my web site www.alexanderperls.com. I've got something on the German charts now, distributed by BMG. The German music market is falling through the ground right now. Why? Piracy.

I'm making dance music, my single is on the satelite radio charts in the USA, but the kind of labels that put out this stuff in the USA are going out of business. In fact, my track was licensed on Ministry of Sound USA last year, but then the label went out of business. Why? Piracy.

I just had a music piracy web site shut down -- www.danceparadise.ca becuse the web master was posting my tracks. I'm now planning on working together with a bunch of other producers in Europe who are similarly affected like I am, and we're going to start taking action.

It's really funny, I get emails all the time from people who 'love my music', and more often then not, they never even dreamed of purchasing the CD. Now I tell them to go @#%@#$ themsleves. This is war.

If any of you run web piracy web sites, please send me an email because it will give me great pleasure to do battle with you.

AP

Dude what the hell have you been smoking (BTW, where do I get some?)?

Do you really think you are gonna get help you here (of all places) to bust other ppl? The last person who pulled a stunt similar to this to get her stuff off one filesharing network gained so much hatred in the entire community that ppl downloaded her stuff and shared on purpose on other programs (regardless of wither they liked it or not) just to spite her (Im sure if you have been around filesharing you'd know who ).
Maybe if you use the lowering prices approach (which larger labels are resisting) and don't directly butt head with p2p community (by suing and all) you might even get paying customers from within the community.
Every group, label or production company that has used draconain measures against the p2p community not only not have gained support for thier point of view but have also alienated some die hard supporters that may have had before (Metallica being a good example)

Or maybe you are just trying do some advertising for your stuff by making a little contraversial comment, lol? :-)

PS. If have paid attention to the news you would see you are not exactly on winning of the so called "war" (at least so far ). Large labels can effort to stay in the fight (they have lots of fund for now) longer and resist adapting.

[r_xq]

Its been proven that the RIAA are making more bucks per record this year than they did last year, theyre just releasing less records.

Smaller, independent record companies have always had financial problems, including creation (former home of Oasis)

Not everyone can sell a million

[tackdaddy]

get a life,i'm going on kazza right now so i can download your music.

[Wolfie]

Originally posted by tackdaddy
get a life,i'm going on kazza right now so i can download your music.

See, what I mean, lol?

Go for it tackdaddy!!!

[wessman]

Originally posted by perls
...Now I tell them to go @#%@#$ themsleves. This is war....

NDGAARONDI, Wolfie, and r_xq all make some pretty valid statements. I speak with artists, labels and other industry folk (majors and indies) on a daily basis, and the feelings on P2P are highly mixed. The most ironic statements come from those artists that aren't sure if they support the idea of their music being swapped for free, but then admit that they use P2P themselves.

The worst statements come from those that don't understand technology all too well, or those that are veteran musicians that have savings accounts that don't warrant huge record sales in their later years. Or, how about a band like Metallica that was born out of tape swapping, only later as platinum sellers to take Napster to court. And it is my understanding that Linkin Park was pursued so heavily by the major labels due to their rampant exposure in P2P networks. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you!

The best statements I have heard are that many artists are making money from $10/CD sales and concert dates because they don't see the need for major labels anymore. And this is both veteran and new artists. Also, many modern thinking artists realize that most "students" are downloading music they would have never been able to afford in the first place. That is where concert ticket sales will be won and tours more profitable to the artists.

As for the downfall of indie labels, this is nothing new. Indie labels have been increasing in quantity because of the Internet. But indie labels have been volatile for the past 50 years, and especially since conglomerates like Sony, Uni, EMI, and Warner have maintained their price-fixing/gouging cartel with distributors and large chains.

Also, the dance/techno/electronia music market has never been a very stable source of income, unless you sell music to commercial advertising and TV/movies. And the artists/producers/engineers/DJs of this genre are the absolute worst P2P exploiters!

So, I have no sympathy for an outdated business model and those that desire to enter a career that is based on that model's unrealistic success.

[NDGAARONDI]

Hey perls, if you are a producer etc. why would YOU register with a site that involves in activities that YOU disapprove of?

Also if you want to be really successful don't blaim p2p on it as an excuse. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can make compilations etc especially with industrial music, esp. trance of all things.

I'm into rock music (well heavy metal) and I got software on my PC to mix techno etc (and my friend has turntables) and it's not that hard to do. Your webpage needs substantial work on it.

You know, music was free once, as our p2p buddies will tell you.

The people that really deserve all the credit in the music industry are people who can play instruments well and can use mixers brialliantly - like Fluke and FSOL. If record companies stop getting bands playing "5 point drum sets" and especially bands who don't write their own songs and takes more than one person to sing the song, who originally only took one to do it anyway. They deserve nothing!

Music should be seen as an art NOT a business!

Some of the best musicians I heared can't make a voice in the English charts b/c of how corrupt it is - shame really.

[tlfuller]

NDGAARONDI, you are absolutly correct. Music USE to be about art, and now the music labels are all about the next dollar. Exploiting talented artists or, when that's not good enough, they create new groups (talentless hacks) and shove them down the customers throat. That just goes to show that you could grab anyone off the street, give them a vocal trainer, hairstylist, make-up artist, costumer, manager, and then a fat contract and then you'd have the next Justin Timberlake...

[NDGAARONDI]

And people who can play several instruments and do degrees in Music (or any music qualification) do you see them in the current music industry?

I know some are good players and don't have a degree in Music, but I know some excellent musicians doing degrees out there that can outplay many people we know in the music industry.....what's happening?

[Lamourlady]

actually all u have to do is watch any of those "becoming" or "wannabe an artist" shows off of MuchMusic or MTV and u can watch people off the street, virtually become video stars.
it's quite interesting to watch.
it just proves the point right home.
if u have the money, a song, some expensive electronic-voice-enhancing equipment and any "joe" off the street.........u could possible have the next pop-star.

[Ken17625]

Don't bother addressing "Perls". He will either never post again or he was just a fake, looking to stir shit.

[pi-r]

just one thing.

I'd rather give 20$ to a poor street singer than buying a crap cd, with one decent song on it..

Where is this going to end ? ...