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Originally Posted by JustinPhelps  I'm a student at UNL and one of my friends was busted. He downloaded he guesses around 275 songs but they offically busted him for around 175. This is no joke, he did not sell them, he did not burn them, he did not hand them out, they were just some oldies that he liked that he had heard in movies.
The RIAA is going after these kids cause they know they can't fight back. Oh and by the way, UNL violated their OWN privacy policy when they gave the RIAA the names of the students who had been downloading songs. Several students that are being sued by the RIAA are counter sueing UNL. If anything, UNL according to their own privacy policy should turn the students into authorities, NOT some organization that's going to sue them.
Pirating music for a gain is absolutely horrible, but come on. Downloading a few songs as a college student. Give me a break. The RIAA should be spending this time and legal action against the people who are actually profiting and severely abusing the system. Not bullying kids into buying cd's.
Read it yourself if you don't believe me. UNL | Digital Copyright Policy http://is.unl.edu/about/UNLprivacy.pdf
They even tell you exactly what is "suppose" to happen if you are caught downloading illegal music with UNL's internet. No where does it mention you might be sued, or turned in to a third party organization. Only on the third strike does it even mention they might turn you into the authorities.
Now, lets not flame me saying that I support illegal downloading. I'm merely looking at this from a legal stand point. UNL led it's students to believe that if they were caught downloading illegal content that they would NOT be punished on the first strike, merely an email notification. second time theres nothing warning and you have to submit some crap in writing. Finally on the third strike you might get punished. Even on the third however, the punishment does not include being sued by a third party. UNL's privacy policy specifically says that it will not release names of students or content they are looking at without a court order. Did the RIAA receive one? Nope!
I just feel the RIAA is being a bully and that it is wrong. Spend this money, time and resources fighting the REAL bad guys. The people who download thousands of songs and sell them!! |
Justin please explain to me why your friend didn't BUY the music in the first place? I had to as a kid, so did everyone else in the world up until a few years ago, why are you and your friend exempt from having to purchase music?
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The solution is easy, don't want to get sued? Simple, BUY THE MUSIC! Problem solved, why is that so hard?!?!?
Don't come here with sob stories. There are no free lunches. If the music was just "some oldies that he liked that he had heard in movies" then he should either have bought the songs or not depending on how much he liked them. You DO NOT have a choice to say, "well I like this a whole lot so I will pay for it but I don't like this as much so I will just take it." That is crap.
Sorry dude... no sympathy from this corner.