Posted by Who are the Brain Police? on 03/31/07 08:38

We're not doing your work for you
By John Oates
Published Friday 23rd March 2007 10:10 GMT

The University of Nebraska has complained that the Recording Industry
Ass. of America wants it do its work of tracking down file sharers.

The University IT system assigns a new Internet Protocol number to a
computer everytime it is switched on. But it only stores this
information for a month so. Although the RIAA can track people sharing
music to individual IP numbers, it cannot link that number to an
individual student.

So although the RIAA is ready to sue 36 students for sharing music
files it can only identify nine of them, and it regards this as a
problem for the university.

A spokeswoman for the RIAA said: "One would think universities would
understand the need to retain these records," according to the Omaha
World Herald.

But the university made clear it did not believe it had any role in
doing the RIAA's work for it. In fact, a lawyer for the university
wrote to the RIAA asking to be reimbursed for the cost of tracking
down students.

The university's chief information officer Walter Weir told the paper:
"We're spending taxpayer dollars tracking down RIAA problems. Are we
an agent of the RIAA? Why aren't they paying us for this?"

The university said each requests costs it $11 to deal with - and the
RIAA has sent the university over 1,000 such requests.

The lobby group advised the university to block all peer-to-peer
software to combat the problem, but the university refused because
such programmes have academic uses too.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/23/university_riaa_snub/


It must be hard to be a one-name mogul, burdened with the task of
meeting so many of the public's entertainment needs. I'm writing to
let you know that I feel your pain.

I can tell you're miserable. You're feeling the anguish that comes
when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place.

On one hand, you hate your customers. Which is entirely
understandable. After all, they keep stealing your products. Then,
after they steal your products once, they form global clubs to make
sure that everyone else has your products too.

On the other hand, you hate the talent who actually make your
products. Which is why your bands are suing you to get free, your
writers are posting their ideas on the Web for all to see, and your
actors are looking for ways to remove you so that they can talk
directly to their audiences. No, it certainly isn't easy being a
monopolist.

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