Students battle RIAA
By Corey Spring
It’s a familiar scenario for many college students: the new Justin Timberlake or Maroon 5 CD comes out… and instead of heading to the record store, many simply fire up the music-sharing application of their choice and download the whole thing — for free — in a matter of minutes. Given the price, convenience, and fact that most music comes out illegally online weeks or even months ahead of its official release, it’s not hard to see why.
Universities across the country have been under increased pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America to curb file-sharing. Last year the RIAA enacted a plan to target college students who illegally share music. While every school is handling the RIAA in their own way, at Ohio State the university can turn over the identity of users the RIAA suspects of sharing music illegally.
At least one Ohio State student being targeted by the RIAA is challenging that.
In November, Mark Kafantaris, a Columbus lawyer representing the student, asked a U.S. District Court magistrate to throw out a ruling that would require Ohio State to identify his client and eight other students accused of sharing music illegally.
“Here, we have the well-oiled and ready legal machine of the music industry poised against unemployed college students who depend on their parents, the government or benevolent institutions for their very sustenance," Kafantaris told The Columbus Dispatch in November. “It's an abuse of the legal system, and it is unconscionable.”
When files are downloaded or uploaded on a file-sharing network, they are only identifiable by their Internet Protocol addresses. The RIAA then sends letters to the university that controls these IP addresses, asking that they forward the letters onto the users who shared the music. Typically these letters ask the user to settle out of court for a sum of several thousand dollars… a fraction of what a typical college could expect to spend if they took the fight to court. If students don’t respond to these letters, the RIAA then asks for a subpoena that would force colleges, such as Ohio State, to pass along the name, address, phone number, and any other personally identifiable information to the RIAA about the suspected file-sharer.
Kafantaris’ client is accused of sharing Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel music, among others, on the BitTorrent file-sharing program.
Critics of the RIAA’s tactics argue, like Kafantaris, that the process is an abuse of the legal system and unfairly targets people who have no choice but to settle out of court, because they cannot afford to defend themselves in a lengthy court battle against the RIAA.
Now even Congress is getting involved. The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, currently working its way through the House of Representatives, would have universities to provide subscriptions for downloading music and movies. Universities that don’t fall in line with the proposed bill could suffer from a loss of government financial aid.
There are some tactics students can take to shield themselves from the RIAA, but none are 100% effective. Those who use the BitTorrent file-sharing system can use a client such as Azureus, which can install plug-ins that block known IP addresses of the RIAA. Another similar program for Windows, PeerGuardian, also blocks known IP addresses. However, since these programs only block a known set of addresses and not unknown addresses that the RIAA may be using, they are not fully effective. Quite simply, the only way to ensure that you stay out of trouble with the RIAA is to not use file-sharing programs at all. Unfortunately, students who learn this lesson don’t learn it until they’re already in over their head.
Originally Published: Issue 617 - January 9, 2008
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