From http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/news/media_relations/95/

April 4, 2003

Mr. Cary Sherman
Recording Industry Association of America
1330 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Mr. Sherman:

In response to your letter of April 3, 2003, I offer the following comments.

Michigan Technological University has been a partner with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) since the inception of the Soundbyting campaign. We have used your materials, methods and procedures to help educate our students on all aspects of copyright law.

We have programs in place to help educate our students on their responsible use of the Internet and its technologies with respect to intellectual property issues.

Our orientation sessions, freshman hall programs, and acceptable-use policies all cover the copyright issue. We also understand that no matter how much education we provide, people will still break the law.

For this reason, we have procedures in place to deal with situations when we are properly notified through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We cooperate fully with all DCMA requests by suspending the connection of the offending machine and moving the offender through a disciplinary process in the Office of Student Affairs.

This process includes a one-hour presentation on copyright law with respect to the Internet. Students are then required to clean up their machine and compose a letter to the company filing the DMCA stating that they have attended the presentation and complied.

In your letter dated April 3, 2003, you refer to a letter of October 3, 2002, sent to all university presidents. Your last line in that letter reads

"We stand ready to be of assistance in any way you might find helpful."

Our Information Technology department, upon receiving this letter, contacted your office twice by phone (leaving messages for Jonathon Whitehead) and three times by e-mail in an effort to update our reference materials and procedures with you.

Your organization responded to none of these messages.

I believe that we would not be facing this situation with Joseph Nievelt today had we been able to gain your help in providing additional information to our student body. We have cooperated fully with the RIAA, but in recent months, have not seen the same from your organization.

You have obviously known about this situation with Joe Nievelt for quite some time. Had you followed the previous methods established in notification of a violation, we would have shut off the student and not allowed the problem to grow to the size and scope that it is today. I am very disappointed that the RIAA decided to take this action in this manner. As a fully cooperating site, we would have expected the courtesy of being notified early and allowing us to take action following established procedures, instead of allowing it to get to the point of lawsuits and publicity.

It has been stated by your office that this is "a bump in the road" between the RIAA and Michigan Tech, and that we will move on from here. It is unfortunate that you choose to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan Technological University.

Taking all of this into consideration, we realize the seriousness of the allegations against Mr. Nievelt and will cooperate fully in resolving this matter.

Sincerely,

Curtis J. Tompkins President

Mr. Tomkins,

Kick them once squarely in the ass for me, would you please?

If they followed normal procedures they couldn't ruin those kids and scare more people off the networks!!

Once again, I do not support music piracy...but it's hardly a crime worth ruining someone's life over. Those kids could get convicted for smoking pot and be in less trouble.

And suffer less public humiliation and scrutiny.

I hereby declare that I own the copyright to the binary sequence "0101011".
Since this happens to be the ASCII value of the "+" sign, anyone using the plus sign shall from now on pay me a $50-royalty every time he/she uses it.

Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of the "+" sign will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under law.

p.s. We are currently working to obtain the copyright on all remaining binary combinations up to 10Gb in length.

(QUOTE)
"We stand ready to be of assistance in any way you might find helpful."

Our Information Technology department, upon receiving this letter, contacted your office twice by phone (leaving messages for Jonathon Whitehead) and three times by e-mail in an effort to update our reference materials and procedures with you.

Your organization responded to none of these messages…

…We have cooperated fully with the RIAA, but in recent months, have not seen the same from your organization.

You have obviously known about this situation with Joe Nievelt for quite some time…

…It is unfortunate that you choose to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan Technological University.
(UNQUOTE)

C.J. you’re not suggesting they “set you up”, that the RIAA allowed music to be traded illegally – going who knows where – and then traded again, and again, and AGAIN.

C.J. how many more billions and billions of dollars worth of music files have escaped your watchful eye?

How many more innocent children will be tempted to ruin their lives by pirating these SAME music files (that may have escaped onto the web), again and again, and AGAIN?

And how will their poor parents, their families, their weak willed friends, each pay billions and billions of dollars for the same few music files (that may have escaped to the web) over and over and OVER AGAIN?

I can only say, C.J., I’m glad you’re not suggesting that C.J. Because that would be heinous and totally unworthy of the high moral standard the RIAA is fighting to maintain.

high moral standard the RIAA is fighting to maintain.

oh pleeeeeeeeeeeease

heres a pirate, heres the RIAA, lets follow procedures. oh look, the uni prez has a conflicting account of things, it doesnt change the fact that a student was wrong to do what he did but still theres no point in having procedures in place if those who make them, the RIAA, cant even be arsed to follow them.

billions of dollars in lost files. yeah, i will remember that when i am forced to buy one of those cloned commercial crap albums that has wasted encryption and tons of gloss and no content. and retails for £18 here (go figure, thats about $30 or more there). and YOU tell me that theres a high moral standard? pffft, somethings high, their prices and your view of them.

lol

ROFL justed

While people are reading this, remember: the probability of getting caught by the RIAA for anything is very low; lower than being hit by a car on a sidewalk. So go ahead, copy and share your files!


MUSIC IS FINALLY FREE!!!

damn, the RIAA should hire the Iraqi information minister. He is doing a better job at spreading propaganda.

ROTFLMAO I almost fell out of my chair when I read this. As it is the Pepsi I was drinking at the time came spewing out of my nose

Hell M1 they could be convicted of murder and be in less trouble. Remember it only cost OJ 33.5 million...

Spica, you'd better coppyright the minus sign next. It's the RIAA's favorite symbol. It's in all the contracts.

Royalty Rate
- Packaging
- Promotion
- Free Goods
- "Independent Promoters"
- Lobbying Fees
- Hilary's salary
= Jack Shit, which is what the artists get paid.

Yeah, but since the Iraqi Information Minister always says the opposite of what's happening wouldn't he just say that there is no problem and that there are no pirates?

Since file-sharing cannot be proven to be a cause in sales decline, he'd be forced to continue to blame the music industry's problems on P2P.

Personally, I'd like to see that guy picked up by Saturday Night Live or David Letterman. Once a week or so, he could come out and tell everyone that they had us surrounded.

Also, am I mistaken or, in the case of The Dixie Chicks, haven't been their sales brought down by the comments of one of the Chicks regarding Bush?

That was opinion sharing not file sharing on the Dixie Chicks. At the same time, Clear Channel a Texas based company, actively incited Dixie Chicks protesters, a number of their stations held Cd burning parties etc.

And another thing . . . does not the MTU president's letter smack of groveling and tuchis-kissing? Or, to quote the old "Wayne's World" sketches, "We're not worthy!"

I thought it sounded more like the MTU's president was saying he thought he HAD been tuchis-kissing and he wants to know why it didn't count for anything.

"It is unfortunate that you choose to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan Technological University."

I thought that was a nice way of saying, "You assholes pissed me off this time and it didn't have to be this way."

The RIAAs attack is designed to scare people. It wouldn't be enough if those students recieved a warning, network ban and lecture on copyright. They RIAA wants them punished severly and publicly. Sort of like hanging criminals at crossroads...

The MTU prez was trying to do things the right way....the way things were set up by RIAA themselves, but when they found out they were onto something "big", they ran the end-around as far as their own rules were laid out, totally disregarding anything they had set up previously. So now that they've busted this kid, they're trying to put him on the hook for approximately the same amount of funds just passed for funding the war in Iraq.
Over music files? What a joke.

I don't get them though, how does this scare the average kazaa user?

"Gee, as long as I don't run a university-wide indexing network I won't get caught? Works for me!!"

I'm sure its coming eventually..but the only way they're really gonna scare home users is to sue someone who shared a FEW files...not a whole truckload that makes them more than just a "home user".

I do not see how legally or constitutionally (sp?) they can sue ANYONE for this. If someone was "selling" them then that would be an infringement of copyright. When I rent a movie and have a friend over who didnt rent them movie.. am I then in violation of the law? When I play my music loud in my car and other people can hear it that didnt buy the cd.. am I in violation of the law then as well? The whole thing is STUPID! If they werent being such ***holes about the whole thing they might see that P2P is a good thing. People are exposed to new things! I hate pop music and I have searched long and hard for something new but not pop.. (long long long long hard hard hard hard search by the way) I have found new types of music I would have never looked for to begin with. I still buy movies, dvd's and Cds and games from the stores and I buy more that i normally would thanks to the p2p sharing. I might just have to stop if they dont stop this mess... Maybe we should sue them for harrassment.. I think that I have whipblash from the headlines of them suing this kid.. and I missed some work worrying about when i would get my supenia. Wait.. isnt there something about deffamation of character. I am not a pirate. And they keep calling me one. This is something we should look into! Obviously you can sue anyone for anything now adays! Pain and suffering! I cried for days when napster shut down! and I searched for hours and lost a lot of sleep to find a new p2p server! roflmao!

"If someone was "selling" them then that would be an infringement of copyright"

No. Giving them away is an infringement. Selling them just ups the penalties a bit. Also, under the NET act, if someone transmits an infringeing file over the internet expecting to recieve more copyrighted material in return it has the same legal status as selling it.

This song tells the story of a condemned man named Tom Dooley. Many believe that Tom Dooley was not actually guilty in this particular case, and instead assumed the blame for others who he wished to protect -- but the overall message is still that (DUM-da-dum-dum)… "crime does not pay”…

(From National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/tomdooley.htm

Adapted from an old folk song (author unknown).

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die

I met there on the mountain, there I took their file
Met there on the mountain, played it with a smile

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry (ah-uh-eye)
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die

This time tomorrow,
reckon where I’ll be
Hadn’t-a been for RIAA,
I’d-a been in Tennessee (well now, boy)

Hang down (your head) your head (Dooley) and cry
Hang down your head and cry (ah poor boy, ah well-ah)
Hang down (your head) your head (Dooley) and cry
Poor boy, you’re bound to die (ah well now boy)

Hang down (your head) your head (Dooley) and cry
Hang down your head and cry (ah poor boy, ah well-ah)
Hang down (your head) your head (Dooley) and cry
Poor boy, you’re bound to die

This time tomorrow,
reckon where I’ll be
Down in some lonesome valley
hangin’ from a white oak tree

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry (ah-uh-eye)
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die (ah well now boy)

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry (poor boy ah well uh)
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
Poor boy, you’re bound to .......die

Does anyone know of any sites where we can find out more news on the cases? Stuff like what the students stand is, and how much was actually infringing files, etc.

Hello everyone!
I'm new here, just wanted to see what people were saying about poor Joe. I'm an MTU student. A good source of information is the Tech newspaper

http://www.mtulode.com

Also, an unnamed Tech student has been maintaining this site:

http://freejoe.servemp3.com/index.html

I also suggest you all take a look at this to see just how incredible this kid apparently is. (I don't know him personally.)

http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/breaking/2002/codewin.html