[Cialug] RIAA hits Iowa

[Tom Poe]

Aaron Jensen wrote:
> I'm a student at UNI and received the following e-mail about a month ago:
>
>     ResNet Users,
>
>     The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has recently changed
>     strategy regarding copyright infringement and is now sending settlement
>     letters to universities offering alleged copyright violators the opportunity
>     to settle out of court.  Of the 400 settlement letters sent out in March
>     2007 to university students across the country, over 115 recipients have
>     decided to settle out of court.  Settlements have been reported to be
>     $3,000-$5,000.
>
>     Should UNI receive one of the settlement letters, we will forward that
>     letter on to the alleged copyright violator.  Alleged copyright violators
>     will have complete responsibility to decide how to respond to the RIAA and
>     may want to consult with his or her legal counsel before making a decision. 
>     UNI does not release the name of alleged copyright violators unless ordered
>     to do so by a court order.
>
>     For more information on how this may impact you, see
>
>     http://www.uni.edu/its/admin/riaastatement.html
>
>     Downloading of music, movies, games, software, etc. that is copyright
>     protected may very likely be theft.  Sharing of this information without the
>     authorization of the owner is a copyright violation.  Running of
>     peer-to-peer software such as Gnutella, Ares, Blubster, Edonkey, Limewire
>     and Bit-Torrent may be putting you at serious risk of inadvertently sharing
>     copyright protected materials.   Individuals who do infringe copyright
>     should reconsider that activity in light of the pervasive monitoring of file
>     sharing that content owners do on the Internet.
>
>     Steve Moon
>     Acting Associate Vice President for Information Technology
>     DMCA Registered Agent
>     Steve.moon at uni.edu
>     273-6813
>   
Thanks for info.  Steve needs to review his email, and clear it with the 
school's legal department, or face severe criticism for assisting what 
is becoming increasingly obvious as illegal actions by both the RIAA and 
the participating schools.  It would behoove any school to recognize the 
rights of its students and to respect those rights by providing 
information that is important to this issue.
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/open-letter-to-universities-whose.html
Ray Beckerman, an attorney that specializes in related cases brought by 
the RIAA has some solid advice for Steve, in particular.
Students would be well-served, and if not apprised of the current state 
of the RIAA's misuse of copyright and DMCA abuse, will look to the 
university for not providing that information in the letters sent out.  
It would be a matter of time, until students seek out attorneys to sue 
the school for failing to inform them in a fair and equitable manner.

I'll gather the addresses for the schools in Iowa, and print out the 
Beckerman letter to send to them as a reminder the issue has evolved, 
and the letters being sent out by them to their students need to reflect 
those changes, if only to protect the school from legal liability issues 
raised by relying on old and ill-informed DMCA agents' knowledge base.
Tom
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