Week 3
- The Recording Industry Association of America has for years employed the company MediaSentry to collect information about possible file-sharers. Now lawyers are questioning MediaSentry's approach and are alleging that they are not a licensed private investigator in some states where lawsuits using their information as evidence. Because of the declining music sales since 2003 the RIAA has targeted individuals for illegally attaining music. Ordinarily the RIAA uses MediaSentry to identify who is downloading illegally because MediaSentry collects the IP addresses of supposedly users of peer-to-peer networks. In many cases they are opposing MediaSentry stating that they do not have a private investigator license.
- Jan Carmikle is the University of California Davis' intellectual property officer and is responsible for getting permission to use various copyright material. She says that the RIAA has made her devote around 15 percent of her work to dealing with various Digital Millennium Copyright Act infringements, which she believes is a waste of taxpayers money. Many universities around the country are having to spend a great deal of money in keeping the RIAA off their backs. The RIAA targets students at random because they do not have a way of knowing who the student is or how much illegal activity they are doing. On UC Davis faculty member was accused of illegally sharing music and he didn't even know. He was unaware that he was sharing music and the RIAA demanded a $3,000 settlement that had to be paid within 20 days.
The faculty member was upset about this happening but knew he really couldn't do anything about it because he felt powerless to fight the RIAA in court. Everyone can be targeted by the RIAA but students living in housing residencies on campus are most likely to get targeted. DMCA notices are however, in decline.
- Students today have the choice whether to purchase their music, burn it illegally or even buy bootlegged copies. Each student has their own individual opinion of why they choose the route they choose. Some decided to download music illegally because its free or because they can not find what they want in the stores. Others decide to pay and acquire their music legally because they want to support the artist. McLeod points out however, that most of the money that comes from selling music albums goes to the big music industry not the individual artist. Downloading and burning CD's is illegal and goes against copyright laws and the Digital Millennium Act.