[edi581] How NOT to Get Sued by the music industry
- From: JerryTaylr@xxxxxxx
- To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 23:10:38 EST
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How NOT to Get Sued by the RIAA
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Back on June 25th, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
threatened to file copyright infringement lawsuits against anyone who
distributes large numbers of copyright MP3s through peer-to-peer
programs like Kazaa and Gnutella. The RIAA backed up that threat on
September 8th, filing lawsuits against 261 people who were sharing
1,000 or more songs online for people to download.
These lawsuits were not a one time thing. According to the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the RIAA is already threatening
a new round of lawsuits against even more file sharers
[http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archives/2003_10.php#000997]. And
while it is hard not to laugh at some of the RIAA's recent ham-handed
blunders =E2=80=93- the RIAA withdrew the lawsuit it had filed against a 65
year old grandmother (and Mac user) who the RIAA had falsely accused
of downloading and sharing countless rap songs =E2=80=93- don't lose sight o=
f
the fact that the US penalty for copyright infringement is $750 to
$150,000 per work.
That's $750 to $150,000 PER song, folks!
And since the Kazaa file sharing program has been downloaded 285
million times, Morpheus 119 million times, iMesh 59 million times,
LimeWire 16 million times, and Grokster 9 million times [source:
download.com], the RIAA has a *HUGE* pool of people they could
potentially sue for disgusting amounts of money. And that pool could
very well contain you.
So, let's see what we can do to help you swim to the side and climb
out of the RIAA's little piddle pool.
Our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently created a
wonderful, free guide titled "How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For
File-Sharing (And Other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated Like a
Criminal.)" You can find the guide online at
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php
You *MUST* read this document if you have *EVER* downloaded songs off
of the Internet using Grokster, Morpheus, Kazaa, Aimster/Madster,
Mactella, Gnucleus, Gnotella, LimeWire, BearShare, iMesh, or WinMX.
I recently heard a computer "expert" say that one way to keep the RIAA
at bay is to simply stop using your peer-to-peer program. That advice
is both incorrect and dangerous. Even if you have not used your peer-
to-peer program in months, that program may still be running in the
background on your computer ... especially if you installed that
program using its default settings. In other words, your computer
could currently be sharing songs with the entire planet =E2=80=93- and the
lawyers at the RIAA -- without your even knowing it. That's a
potentially bad thing.
Fortunately, the EFF provides links to sites that show you, step-by-
step, how to disable the sharing and uploading features on your peer-
to-peer application, features that could possibly get you in trouble
with the RIAA.
If you are concerned that your children or grandchildren have
installed a peer-to-peer program on your computer without your
knowledge, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove
Programs and see if one of the programs listed above is listed in
Add/Remove Programs. If it is, remove it.
And, for those of you who compute with fruit, just search your Mac for
Aimster, Madster, Morpheus, or LimeWire. Those are pretty much the
four biggies on the Mac (I think.)
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Class website: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor/suny/
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