Says they don't send automated notices to commercial ISP's because they think that they are generally aware that there's a file-sharing problem."
The Chronicle of Higher Education got a private demonstration recently of how the RIAA catches alleged music pirates at the organization's headquarters. The rep said it uses the same P2P and file-sharing software as that of the pirates it's attempting to bust and in no way singles out certain colleges or universities.
He says the process works like this: The RIAA has a list of copyrighted songs that it gives to an anti-piracy company called Media Sentry. This company then runs LimeWire, KaZaA, or other Direct Connect type file-sharing programs and searches for these copyrighted songs to see if anybody's "making them available" for others to download.
They then simply "right-click" on any of these copyrighted music files and choose "browse host" to see all of the other songs that a specific person is offering for others for download as well as their IP address. Media Sentry then takes the IP address, the names and number of songs the person is "making available," and tracks them down.
Yet, little is said of how this "making available" theory has been repeatedly shot down in court, that actual distribution must take place, not the theoretical kind or that to Media Sentry who has been authorized to download copyrighted material.
"Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution," wrote judge Neil Wake in Atlantic v.Howell.
What is interesting to point out though is that Media Sentry has apparently created scripting software that automatically types in the names of copyrighted songs, notes IP addresses, checks them, and forwards the data to the RIAA.
In order to verify that music is copyrighted, Media Sentry checks the hash of each song to verify that it is identical to one in the RIAA's database. After the match is confirmed Media Sentry performs a TCP connection to the user and verifies the date, time, and IP address that the music was available.
What's sort of disturbing though is that this automated process is "solely university-focused." The RIAA has actually gone out of its way to target college students, people with usually few financial resources or time to challenge their accusations in court.
"The automated takedown notice program we have right now is solely university-focused," said the RIAA rep. "We're trying to make universities aware that they have an issue with peer-to-peer file sharing on their network, and so we don't send automated notices to commercial ISP's, I think because they are generally aware that there's a problem."
So it's the RIAA's plan to make colleges aware of the problem? Considering they've been suing the heck out of students since 2007, have dragged college administrators to Congress on several occasions, and have even got lawmakers to threaten to cut off federal funding to those who don't do more to prevent campus file-sharing, is there any campus left that isn't yet aware of the file-sharing "problem." It's laughable.
It's one big shakedown game, with the RIAA automatically targeting college students. The best part is that it even said recently that it underwent a huge software and server upgrade to target even more college students.
Again, rather than upgrading its business model it instead chooses to once again sharpen its sword and spear.
The Chronicle of Higher Education got a private demonstration recently of how the RIAA catches alleged music pirates at the organization's headquarters. The rep said it uses the same P2P and file-sharing software as that of the pirates it's attempting to bust and in no way singles out certain colleges or universities.
He says the process works like this: The RIAA has a list of copyrighted songs that it gives to an anti-piracy company called Media Sentry. This company then runs LimeWire, KaZaA, or other Direct Connect type file-sharing programs and searches for these copyrighted songs to see if anybody's "making them available" for others to download.
They then simply "right-click" on any of these copyrighted music files and choose "browse host" to see all of the other songs that a specific person is offering for others for download as well as their IP address. Media Sentry then takes the IP address, the names and number of songs the person is "making available," and tracks them down.
Yet, little is said of how this "making available" theory has been repeatedly shot down in court, that actual distribution must take place, not the theoretical kind or that to Media Sentry who has been authorized to download copyrighted material.
"Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution," wrote judge Neil Wake in Atlantic v.Howell.
What is interesting to point out though is that Media Sentry has apparently created scripting software that automatically types in the names of copyrighted songs, notes IP addresses, checks them, and forwards the data to the RIAA.
In order to verify that music is copyrighted, Media Sentry checks the hash of each song to verify that it is identical to one in the RIAA's database. After the match is confirmed Media Sentry performs a TCP connection to the user and verifies the date, time, and IP address that the music was available.
What's sort of disturbing though is that this automated process is "solely university-focused." The RIAA has actually gone out of its way to target college students, people with usually few financial resources or time to challenge their accusations in court.
"The automated takedown notice program we have right now is solely university-focused," said the RIAA rep. "We're trying to make universities aware that they have an issue with peer-to-peer file sharing on their network, and so we don't send automated notices to commercial ISP's, I think because they are generally aware that there's a problem."
So it's the RIAA's plan to make colleges aware of the problem? Considering they've been suing the heck out of students since 2007, have dragged college administrators to Congress on several occasions, and have even got lawmakers to threaten to cut off federal funding to those who don't do more to prevent campus file-sharing, is there any campus left that isn't yet aware of the file-sharing "problem." It's laughable.
It's one big shakedown game, with the RIAA automatically targeting college students. The best part is that it even said recently that it underwent a huge software and server upgrade to target even more college students.
Again, rather than upgrading its business model it instead chooses to once again sharpen its sword and spear.