Milwaukee says NO to RIAA
Written by Ben Jones on March 27, 2007Recently, the University of Wisconsin (based in Madison, WI) announced that it would not forward on threatening letters from the RIAA to its students. Now, some of the other schools in the system are going along with it in what can only be seen as a setback to the recording industry’s thuggish policies.
According to an email sent to all members of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) such letters will not be passed on to students. The full text of the email reads
SUBJECT: Illegal File Sharing at UWM
This announcement is being sent to all known UWM faculty, staff and student e-mail addresses.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has recently increased its threat of lawsuits against students and others who engage in illegal digital file sharing. This is in response to perceived violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which specifically addresses copyright infringement of digital materials such as music, movies and software.
As you may know from recent press reports, the RIAA is now targeting individuals who live in university residence halls or use university computing resources. Because the RIAA can only identify violators by their ISP (Internet Service Provider) identifier, they are sending letters to universities requesting that these letters be forwarded to students, faculty and staff.
The RIAA notified UWM of its plans to send settlement proposal letters for individuals on the UWM campus whom they believe are guilty of violating federal copyright laws. These letters request that a monetary settlement be made by the violator in lieu of court action by the RIAA.
After consultation with UW System, our own legal counsel and with our understanding of federal law, UWM has decided that these letters will not be passed on to individuals. However, should RIAA send UWM a lawful subpoena for users’ account information, UWM will comply.
It is important to be aware of copyright law and avoid illegal P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing.
For more information, visit the UWM Information Security Web Site at https://www3.uwm.edu/imt/security/index.cfm.
This is clearly a boon to its students, where there are more important things to do than respond to a glorified extortion letter. Bravo Wisconsin for standing up for your students, and dealing with the RIAA’s cheesy plan appropriately.
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7 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
The University is screwing the students.
The RIAA letter to be sent to the student, asks for a monetary settlement, in lieu of being sued.
The student should at least be allowed to know he is being written to, and to have a chance to settle on terms the student chooses.
By keeping the students in the dark, the university bureaucrats make it likely that the student WILL be sued. And as the bureaucrats admit, they WILL comply with a routine subpoena and hand over all the information identifying the student so he can be named in a federal copyright suit.
The copyright suit is FAR more expensive to the student than would be an inexpensive settlement slap on the wrist, and promise not to do it again. In addition, the suit becomes a matter of public record, screwing up everything from credit rating to security clearance for years to come.
The university bureaucrats think they’re saying “f..k you” to the rights owners. But they’re really sayhing “f..k you” to their own students.
In fact, it looks to me that the bureaucrats are violating their ethical duty and legal obligations to the students at issue, and should themselves be subjected to liability from the students.
I disagree. The RIAA ASKS the universities to forward letters. The RIAA wants to use universities as puppets in its terrible game. Universities shouldn’t have to comply with the RIAA. The RIAA should do the work themselves if they want to be moronic. Don’t think that the RIAA will still send the letters, but the university won’t give them to the students; think that the RIAA asks the university, the university says “go f**k your mother,” and the RIAA has to find another way.
do you work for the RIAA jose?
[quote comment="74089"]In fact, it looks to me that the bureaucrats are violating their ethical duty and legal obligations to the students at issue, and should themselves be subjected to liability from the students.[/quote]
maybe you missed this part of the email quoted above:
[quote]After consultation with UW System, our own legal counsel and with our understanding of federal law,[/quote]
I’m fairly sure that the legal department of a large university is way more qualified than you, in determining what action they should take in regards to these extortion letters.
Glad to see some Uni’s throwing these out… It is an absolute joke.. Send them proof and RIAA will get what they want..
I glad they do this. for time been I guess they will be out of RIAA hand . cause I doubt RIAA want to really bring all the student to court since they had been losing much in court these days . making more noise in court will give RIAA disadvantage .
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