Mobile/PDA About Us Advertise here


		User name	Password

		Not registered yet? Register here. Lost your password? Click here.

Browse by topic

News

Copyright lawyer advises universities to fight RIAA

30 September 2007 14:30 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 4 comments

Wendy Seltzer, founder of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse - a project which brings together law clinics from several prominent law schools and the EFF to educate individuals about their rights with regard to intellectual property and fair use, recently spoke at Cornell University advising universities to fight attempted lawsuits against students for illegal file sharing.

Although she addressed the established problems with identifying users by IP address, that wasn't the main focus of her talk. Instead, she concentrated the potential damage to both universities and students that could result from cooperation, or at Limited resistance.

By Seltzer's reasoning, there's a lot more at stake than the legal problems of a small percentage of college students. In her words, universities should resist on the grounds that the lawsuits place an "undue burden" on them by pitting school administration against the students they're supposed to serve. She argues that when they're forced to share private information about students with RIAA lawyers they risk creating an atmosphere counter to the goal of academic opennes that's critical to education.

She also addressed measures that RIAA lobbyists recently attempted to get passed that would have required schools to monitor their networks for file sharing activity to issue annual reports to the federal government to produce a list of schools with the most copyright infringement, saying "Why Congress should be getting into the business of naming names and pointing fingers is beyond me."

Although the measure was withdrawn after a public outcry, it certainly serves as a reminder that the RIAA feels that their profits are the responsibility of everyone, and such an overwhelming public interest that little things like due process and evidence aren't particularly important.

Source: Ars Technica

Permalink to this article

RIAA may not have authority for university subpoenas (20 November 2007)

Judge rejects student's privacy claims in file sharing case (26 October 2007)

Yahoo! VP says down with DRM (9 October 2007)

Bush Administration on P2P trial decision (7 October 2007)

First U.S. file sharing trial kicks off (3 October 2007)

EFF shows how RIAA lawsuits have failed (29 August 2007)

P2P amendment dropped from college funding bill (28 July 2007)

Ohio University recieves subpoenas to turn over names to RIAA (19 May 2007)

Stanford will charge reconnection fee for P2P users (17 May 2007)

Congress sends surveys to Universities over piracy concerns (3 May 2007)

UW-Madison students forced to give IDs to RIAA (29 April 2007)

Ohio University bans all P2P traffic (27 April 2007)

UMS refuses to pass student details on to RIAA (28 March 2007)

« Previous news article
New report points fingers at file sharers and music industry

Next news article »
GAO report criticizes government inaction in DTV transition

Post your comment

Discuss this article!
H0bbes (Junior Member) 30 September 2007 18:24
You go girl! LOL :-) I'm not an advocate of piracy, but I AM against losing right to privacy. [ + quote]
WierdName (Senior Member) 30 September 2007 20:03
Nice. Of course, you know this means the RIAA will try to find some sort of means to 'remove' her now because she will help cut into their bottom dollar. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 1 October 2007 5:20
At least we have one of them on our side :) Well done :) [ + quote]
agwild99 (Newbie) 10 October 2007 2:56
Now were catching on. I have been saying this for a long time. If we all fought back (not that I am in this situation) the RIAA % MPAA would eventually give up. They are making easy money when the people who roll over and settle out of court. We make it go to court and the cost will be higher than the dividends. If I were them I would attack everyone too. Easy money. [ + quote]