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| From | Michael McCartney <michaelmccartney@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | BREAKING NEWS: File-Swapping College Students Settle With RIAA |
| Date | Sat, 3 May 2003 01:43:09 -0700 (PDT) |
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The four college students accused of running
file-sharing networks containing hundreds of
copyrighted songs made financial settlements yesterday
with the RIAA. Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman,
students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daniel
Peng, a Princeton University student and Joseph
Nievelt, a junior at Michigan Technological
University, agreed to pay between $12,000 and $17,500
each to the label trade group.
"Most students will view $15,000 as a fairly
significant amount of money," Matt Oppenheim, SVP of
business and legal affairs for the RIAA told the Los
Angeles Times. "The message is clearly getting through
that distributing copyrighted works without permission
is illegal, can have consequences, and that we will
move quickly and aggressively to enforce our rights."
Oppenheim also noted that its operators took down at
least 18 college file-sharing networks since the four
suits were filed.
Evan Cox, a copyright attorney who has helped software
companies in piracy battles, agrees. "I’d personally
think twice about doing something that would cost me
$12,000 to $17,500 to avoid spending 12 to 15 bucks on
the occasional CD," he said.
However, not everyone agrees the settlements have
positive implications for the record industry. Howard
Ende, an attorney for Ping, says the fines will only
increase negative feelings towards the industry. He
accuses the RIAA of "intimidating Internet users
around the country and college students in
particular." Ende also believes there will be a
backlash. "They looked to install fear, but instead
they got fear and loathing."
Jordan’s out-of-work father Andy, who owns thousands
of records and CDs, says the fine will burden his
family. "The RIAA says that they wanted to teach these
kids and their families a lesson," he told the Times.
"The lesson we learned is that we will never, ever buy
another product from any of those companies again.
That's the lesson we're going to tell everyone."
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