Music Industry Group Sues College File Swappers

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A music industry group on Thursday said it has filed lawsuits against the operators of private computer networks on three college campuses where it claims the networks are being used to illegally trade copies of digital music files.

The Recording Industry Association of America said its member companies filed suit against two students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and against one student each at Princeton University and Michigan Technological University.

The RIAA has actively used the courts to pursue digital music pirates after a 9 percent dip in CD sales in 2002 that it blames for the most part on online file sharing.

In a statement, the association compared the file-sharing systems, which are open only to students on the universities' internal networks, as miniature versions of Napster -- the software and network that led to the explosion of music file swapping.

The four networks were offering nearly 2.5 million files, it said, including more than 1 million files on the largest network alone.

News source: Reuters - Music Industry Group Sues College File Swappers

View: Neowin Back Page News Forum - RIAA sues campus file-swappers

The complaints ask for the legal limit on damages in such cases, $150,000 per each copyright infringed.

The defendants named in the complaints are Daniel Peng at Princeton, Joseph Nievelt at Michigan Technical, and Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman of Rensselaer.

None of the four could be immediately reached by phone or e-mail. A personal Web site listed for Sherman on the Rensselaer site was not loading as of Thursday afternoon.

Last month the RIAA sent letters to 300 U.S. companies, across a variety of industries, warning them of specific evidence of illegal music swapping on their networks and the potential legal consequences of allowing it to continue.

The RIAA represents the world's major music companies, including Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp., AOL Time Warner, EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann AG

#1 zivan56 on 04 Apr 2003 - 01:20

And the USA thinks terrorism is not on american soil (RIAA)

#2 eaglebtc on 04 Apr 2003 - 01:24

Yes the terrorists name is Osama bin Rosen (hillary rosen that is)

#3 DrOmango on 04 Apr 2003 - 01:27

.... everytime they do something gay, their site will be hacked.. now watch for that ....

#4 Callaway on 04 Apr 2003 - 01:40

anyone have ftp access to any of these networks?

#5 guinnessman on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:12

I knew that Joseph Nievelt sounded familiar: http://www.topcoder.com/index?t=news_events&c=pr_04_10_02, he was pretty good programmer I guess. At least MTU got its name in the papers.

#6 GeekBoy2000 on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:42

To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from "Van Wilder": If Hillary Rosen's still running things at the RIAA, who's in charge of Hell?

Seriously though, the RIAA continues to work as hard as they can to turn public opinion against them. I haven't bought a CD for so long I can't remember, and thanks to the RIAA's absurd campaign, I don't plan to.

(1 reply) #7 trashpickinman on 04 Apr 2003 - 02:55

they're complaining about a 9 percent dip in cd sales in 2002, like they're really exempt from the economic downturn the rest of the nation is facing.

#7.1 xAFireInsidex on 04 Apr 2003 - 20:30

[neoquote=#7.0 by trashpickinman]they're complaining about a 9 percent dip in cd sales in 2002, like they're really exempt from the economic downturn the rest of the nation is facing.[/neoquote] very true, very true... why do they think they wont be affected like the rest of north america?

#8 uniacid on 04 Apr 2003 - 03:39

I know, I haven't bought a cd in years also, and I don't plan to unless I really like it and can't find it

#9 Xab on 04 Apr 2003 - 03:53

Same, I don't ever plan to buy a CD again until the RIAA pulls their head out of Hillary Rosen's ass

(1 reply) #10 insurektion on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:02

Heh I didnt buy CD's 3 Cd's before file sharing and have since bought 8. If they are losing money its because of crap Bands out there. Filesharing has done little to hurt them. Also I believe they twist the figures around to somehow make singles (which are the only ones losing money) to have more of an impact in the final number. Anhhow Hilary Rosen should stop being such a

#10.1 Fanon on 04 Apr 2003 - 15:11

Agreed. I bought more CD's because of Napster than I ever have. I'm sure my CD collection went up at least 30 CDs when I first started using Napster. As long as the RIAA pulls this crap, I'm not going to buy.

(1 reply) #11 Darkwolven on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:24

[QUOTE]The RIAA has actively used the courts to pursue digital music pirates after a 9 percent dip in CD sales in 2002 that it blames for the most part on online file sharing.[/QUOTE] And I don't suppose that it was because of their draconian behavior at all, was it?? Nahh. Makes perfect sense to bludgeon something you don't like into submission to try and make it go away and thereby infuriate the public in general that you are trying to herd in like sheep to increase your bottom fr*ckin line. It's too bad they will probably never learn. If they would have seriously embraced a low cost HIGH quality alternative to Napster, they would have made a mint.

#11.1 Fanon on 04 Apr 2003 - 15:15

Yes, they would have - but the RIAA [b]hates[/b] MP3s for one simple reason: They see they cannot reasonably charge $12 - $15 for an album made available as MP3s. They only want their money, and they don't give a crap what their customers want.

#12 tagler on 04 Apr 2003 - 05:33

file sharing only hurts one-hit wonder bands cause the majory of people i know only download a song or two from an artist on the net, now if that artist acutally made a whole album of good music, then i see people acutally buying the CD. file sharing will only make better music in the long run. i only buy CDs that are 6.99 and are from new unknown bands cause to me paying 6.99 is less than spending the time to donwload n burn

(2 replies) #13 xAFireInsidex on 04 Apr 2003 - 07:54

"The RIAA has actively used the courts to pursue digital music pirates after a 9 percent dip in CD sales in 2002 that it blames for the most part on online file sharing" You know where this dip in sales came from?? Overpriced CDs!! Why the hell do I want to pay $25+(Canadian) for a CD? I dont. I buy CDs of bands that I absolutely cant do without. But thats it, the rest of my music comes from IRC because I cant afford to spend over $20 on every CD that I want to buy. Lower the prices and I will start buying more CDs.

#13.1 Furet on 04 Apr 2003 - 11:18

hmm...here in France we buy CDs from 18 to 25 €...a lot more than you pay them

(( But as always, when I like a CD, I buy it. If I cannot find what I want, I download it. The major problem is our governement...They are trying to kill Internet. A new law (that will be applicated from june 2003) charge ISP to survey the content of transmission on their network. A special commission is to decide what we (french users) will be able to see from France, what can be downloaded,etc...And writes down a list gived to ISP. If the ISP fails to apply the commission's willings, it can be pursued legally and condamned. To be compliant to the commission, the ISP will have to cut down the network to "illegal" users... Here only aged people feel good, as being "young" (i.e. under 35) you are almost shown as a criminal (thanks to f*cking TV and medieval laws). So in a near future, we even won't be able to download unless it's "regular". Funny...France is told to be the origin of human rights and freedom...that was a long long long time ago

#13.2 pctuk on 04 Apr 2003 - 19:18

I feel sorry for you. I really do, this is truely [B]awful[/B] news.

#14 Quick Reply on 04 Apr 2003 - 10:04

this is plain out, black and white, bullshiit. even though piracy isn't the reason for most of the 9% drop in sales, a small network is 0.000000001% of all piracy so they are just trying to such money out of cash-poor students.

#15 Rib Feast on 04 Apr 2003 - 15:16

I can see their panic, when I think of RIAA and MPAA I think of the year 1950. They do have an antiquated business model, they are stuck in the past and are grappling (tooth and nail) to drag people back into their business model. I'd like to say you can't blame them, but I do - they can eat shit.

(1 reply) #16 mealbundy on 04 Apr 2003 - 16:03

Its not MP3s they should be afraid of. Its already outlived its dayz. I gotz me a DVD+-RW drive now. Time to make another round to blockbastard, i mean blockbuster. Thank You 321Studios.com for DVDXCOPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#16.1 YaddaMe on 04 Apr 2003 - 20:23

Well, for now that is.... the movie industry is hard after 321 Studios. Does DVDXCOPY do the menus, features, etc? Or just the movie? DVD copying wont hit mainstream until there is an ability to copy the exact disc (something DVDXCopy does not do (yet)), and when writeable discs have the same capacity as studio releases. And Blockbuster? Man, save some cash and get yourself a NetFlix account.

(3 replies) #17 Spider_Man on 04 Apr 2003 - 16:04

You know, It's a simple matter for these Jerks at the RIAA to go about sewing someone but if one of us try to then we get all pushed around! I do belive this falls under the frivolous lawsuit laws at least somewhere! Maybe not, but it should. See my problem with this particular suit is that they are threatening the livelihood of some individual people, they're not going after another company. I mean do they actually think these College Kids can afford to pay them $150,000 per infringement?!?!?!?!? All they are trying to do is mess people's lives up. Man we got our friends and family accross seas fighting in a war and all these jerks can think about it their f'in bottom line!!!!!

Man, I've had it with these self-righteous @$$holes ad the pretentious beliefs. Let me catch one in public. Please GOD! Just one of them, just so I can have someone to place all my anger and frustration on to!

#17.1 YaddaMe on 04 Apr 2003 - 20:35

I think ya are a lil off-base. The RIAA isn't trying to destroy anyone's life, they're trying to send a message. Granted, they're sending the message in about the worst way they could, and in doing so, may detroy a few lives... but hurting these ppl isn't their goal. The RIAA is just f***d in the head in how they go about things. A good deal of schools in the U.S. are private schools... so they are legally liable to what goes on, on their network I would assume. Sue the schools and you send a much stronger, much more effective message. - Sue just 1 school, and you have each and every one around the country scrambling to clean up piracy as best they can on their networks. - Sue an individual, and you hurt that individual, piss off a lot of ppl, and still failed to send any kind of meaningful message (since most individuals will simply say, what are the odds they catch me). Myself, I find it humorus to see them shoot themselves in the foot with each move they make.

#17.2 tagler on 04 Apr 2003 - 22:06

amen brother

#17.3 tagler on 04 Apr 2003 - 22:07

sue a whole school.... lol... i've love to see them fail at that

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