A Princeton student is worried he might face criminal charges and be thrown into jail on the instructions of Warner Music (US), Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Japan, Germany), EMI Group (Britain) and Universal Music Group (Vivendi, France).for sharing music online.
The Four Horsemen of the Big Music Apocalypse think they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and to whomever they want in their attempts to gain control of p2p and how music is distributed online.
However, having people thrown into jail for file sharing isn’t a cartel option, and this kind of copyright infringement is a civil, not criminal, matter.
Now the Big Four labels have turned their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) loose on one of America’s premier teaching institutions, Princeton University, demanding the names of 39 students they claim have been sharing music online.
So far, not one of the approaching 10,000 people who’ve received an RIAA subpoena has actually appeared before a judge. And that’s they’re all very ordinary men, women and children – and students – who simply don’t have the financial or legal resources to take Big Music on.
The cartel knows this, using the fact it’s issued the documents to imply that it’s successfully prosecuted thousands of hard-core, file sharing criminals for the ‘crime’ of file sharing.
Of course, file sharing isn’t a crime. No money changes hands for one thing. And for another, it’s never even been vaguely proved that file sharing has any impact on record industry sales, a point driven home by the most recent of the many academic and other studies which examine this spurious contention.
In fact, as an article in Britain’s influential The Economist recently pointed out, “”perhaps the decline in global sales is indicative of a far greater problem for the music industry – consumers simply think that many of its products are just not worth paying for.”
Now, however, it appears Princeton University has every intention of caving in to the cartel, handing over the names so its students so they can potentially be sued by the labels.
‘If and when …’
“Princeton spokesman Eric Quinones indicated Wednesday the university plans to cooperate with the RIAA, and he affirmed the school’s commitment to honoring intellectual property rights,” says The Princeton Packet, going on:
“The spokesman said Princeton received 39 notices beginning last week from the RIAA alerting the school that it would be served with subpoenas to obtain information on people responsible for computers associated with the alleged acts of copyright infringement. He said he could not confirm any details of the activities alleged by the RIAA.”
And it also seems the cartel doesn’t actually have to do anything to see its desires acted upon. A mere threat is now enough.
“Mr Quinones said the university has notified the students responsible for those computers, letting them know that the notices were received. He said the school has not yet received any of the subpoenas.” But, “If and when we do receive subpoenas, we would respond to the RIAA’s request for more information,” the spokesman continued.
Read the complete story @ P2Pnet News
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