This story was printed from The Chronicle.
Site URL: http://www.chronicle.duke.edu.
August 26, 2004
RIAA gives support to iPod plan
by Kelly Rohrs

Now that Duke has given iPods—an irresistible temptation to download music—to more than 1,600 freshmen, the legality of online music swapping is once again a topic of discussion on campus.

“We’ve certainly raised our visibility to the recording industry,” said Chris Cramer, a security officer for the Office of Information Technology. “Whether that will translate to more close scrutiny from the recording industry, I don’t know.”

The Recording Industry Association of America fully supports the iPod giveaway for its educational potential and the legal downloading options it offers students, according to a report from a Joint Committee of record industry executives and leaders of higher education that was submitted to Congress Wednesday.

The RIAA sued a total of 158 people at 35 American universities for stealing music last year, and the industry announced Wednesday that it has filed 744 more lawsuits against people who it alleges have illegally downloaded music. “There’s nothing like hearing that somebody you know has been caught to make you realize that this threat is real and not theoretical,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

Multiple students said they used to download music but have recently stopped. Fear of being sued by record companies and the RIAA was a major motivator for many students’ decisions to cease downloading.

Senior Rachel Decker said it would take a serious threat for her to switch from the music service she already uses because the difficulty of learning a new program for a legal service is not worth the effort. “Unless there are actual consequences, no one will use it,” she said.

As the record industry prosecutes more people, Duke students are backing away from free, but illegal, music. Several students cited a nagging conscience as the reason they stopped downloading, and many others are wary of online viruses.

Some of them, like Divinity School student Precious Umunna, have stopped using the file-sharing service available on the Duke network as well.

“The only difference between Kazaa and Duke is that Duke is a community and Kazaa is international,” Umunna said.

The record companies agree. Duke is not one of the 20 schools that has offered its students a legal downloading option with the same ease and convenience as the illegal file-sharing powerhouses.

Over the past year, an increasing number of universities have made agreements with online music sources to offer students legal, downloadable content for free. The universities pay a heavily discounted subscription fee and students receive unlimited streaming content. To burn the music to a compact disc, students pay a per-song fee.

Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University and co-chair of the Joint Committee, said plans are in the works at many schools to offer students an inexpensive service to download songs to portable music players like iPods.

But for the moment Duke is not interested in such programs, administrators said. The University is standing by its long-standing position that students are responsible enough to make their own choices about illegal downloading.

“We’ve always taken a position very firmly that we’re not content editors, and we’re not going to restrict student use of computers by reviewing their content,” Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said.

Sherman has been wary of students’ ability to police themselves, and through the Joint Committee, he has been advocating the legal music subscription services as a way for universities to protect students from “the illegal behavior which they are bound to engage in,” he said Tuesday.

As part of the iPod program, Duke has set up an iTunes website where students can download songs for 99 cents each. Each undergraduate student also received 10 free songs as bait to get students interested in the service. Although some students, including many freshmen, said they are using the service, the majority of students are still turning to Limewire and Kazaa for the latest music.

“There’s nothing like hearing that somebody you know has been caught to make you realize that this threat is real and not theoretical,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

Yes, I'm sure for him it's the sweet and lovely sound of the ka'ching-cash register he's hearing and supposedly heading their way.

guess what university students are going to be specificly targeted in the next round of lawsuits.

He sure knows human nature for 'the illegal behaviour which they are bound to engage in'. At least he recognizes the dark side. Too bad he can't (or won't) do the same for himself or his member companies. Wary of self-policing ability? We're all in the same boat, no rocket science to see that everyone does something unfavoured by someone else at least some of the time.

Unlimited streaming tunes, but a fee to burn to CD? What's the quality of the stream, and the quality of the file for burning? If they're almost similar (probably aren't), Total Recorder all the way!

"... to protect students from “the illegal behavior which they are bound to engage in,”

In otherwords, you are guilty, we just haven't caught you yet. Made mention of this mentality earlier today before seeing this article.

Sure ain't the same when the majors and the RIAA get caught in some of the same things, is it?

“There’s nothing like hearing that somebody you know has been caught to make you realize that this threat is real and not theoretical,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

It depends. It makes me very angry instead.

This sounds more and more like racket to me. They really try to coerce campuses to buy "protection" from them.

How long are we going to have to stand that before a real solution (like compulsory licensing and profit sharing) is implemented in the name (and for the sake) of the people.

Well, I understand the article, but you'd think that Dookie could have written it better (trust me, you have to be a University of North Carolina fan to understand that).

My question is, of all the universities that have set up free, but legal, file-sharing services, how many of them are private schools? See, Duke University is a private school and doesn't receive any federal funding so they're pretty much able to set their own policies without fear of outside influence. Now, if someone affiliated with the RIAA were able to buy their way on to whatever policy making board Duke has, then maybe the RIAA could coerce Duke into setting up a legal service for a huge fee.

Until then, Duke will still say no.

And I'm assuming the author of the original article believes that the 158 students from 35 universities actually went out to the record store and stole CDs because, as we all know, copyright infringement and stealing are not the same.

C'mon people... USENET, and IRC are the way to go. Untraceable(unless your the one uploading, and you have to CHOOSE to).

what is the best way to contact the RIAA?

Usenet and IRC never attracted legal attention because they were small-scale and inconvenient, espicially compared with p2p networks.

If the RIAA, MPAA and all their minions do manage to completly destroy p2p networks - possible, espicially if their underhanded attempt to pass Induce works - the future will be not in organised networks, but social networks. If someone on an IM program or IRC tells you about the latest film, just ask them to send you over a rip. At future broadband speeds, even assuming an awful 6:1 ratio, that could be practical.

As for compulsory licensing: I fully support the idea in princible, but its not going to happen. With the international problems, the potential for future growth of downloading, the competition this would place on other markets, the huge number of potential claims to the money and the industries plain reluctance to change anything, I do not believe the most influential copyright holders would ever find it an acceptable solution.

goldenpi, couldn't legislation force a compulsory licensing deal, forcing the RIAA/MPAA/etc. into fair licensing?

"Sherman has been wary of students’ ability to police themselves, and through the Joint Committee, he has been advocating the legal music subscription services as a way for universities to protect students from “the illegal behavior which they are bound to engage in,” he said Tuesday."

Illegal? I haven't seen ONE CASE REACH COURT YET that has proved it to be ILLEGAL. That has yet to be decided by a court of law. Of course, Cary-Sue Sherman believes he is Judge and Jury in these matters... MORON.

"what is the best way to contact the RIAA?"

Their phone number. (202) 775-0101.

"Cary-Sue Sherman believes he is Judge and Jury in these matters..."

And Executioner.......

All they need to do is make sure they don't have hundreds of RIAA members files on share. Stick with independent music or make sure you only share the odd few RIAA songs. Heck. If you and your colleagues have dupes then why not have your colleagues share certain letters of the alphabet. So Shitney Spears under 'S' and make sure the letters are shared on different IP addresses.

Come on people. Use your heads.