RIAA, Loyola Univ. Accuse 2 Students of Illega[l] File-Swapping

by Varlet 10:20am Wed Jul 16 '03 article#28574 Chicago IndyMedia



LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HANDS OVER NAMES OF TWO STUDENTS SUSPECTED OF FILE-SWAPPING

Internet Privacy rights are coming under increased attack as the disgusting Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has begun an all-out assault on people who use popular Napster-like file-swapping software such as Kazaa to share music files over the Internet for free.

The RIAA claims that individuals who share music in this way are costing the major record companies billions of dollars in profits every year. They also claim, quite hypocritically, that file-swappers are robbing recording artists of millions of dollars in royalties... a practice that has actually long been perfected over the years by the record companies themselves!

We could care less whether or not the record companies lose millions... or even (say this in your best Dr. Evil voice)... "billions?"... of dollars to students and others who choose to share their music with other music fans for free via the internet. The record industry has been robbing music fans AND recording artists for the better part of a century, swindling artists out of royalties, their publishing rights to their own songs, and their copyrights as well. For these RIAA pigs to present themselves as the defenders of musicians' rights is the very height of fraud and hypocrisy!

Students, musicians, and the estimated 53 MILLION Americans who use file-swapping software must unite to defend the people being set up by the record industry for sharing their record collections with their friends around the world, using the simple, modern desktop technology at hand. And the Universities must be made to understand that if they are such cowards when it comes to defending the free-speech and association rights of the students, they will be held accountable for it!

Why is the record industry losing money? Because their dull, conformist, coprorate "rock music" SUCKS!! And no one wants to shell out hard earned dollars for their mindless pablum!

And to be attacking college students, who are often barely surviving as it is, for the 'crime' of sharing their music files with other people is truly revolting!

The major recording artists can put an end to this bullshit immediately! For an industry-wide musicians' strike against the RIAA's Big Brother attacks on music fans!

Drop the charges against all the people rounded up in the RIAA/Big Music Witchhunt!

---- Varlet

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From the Associated Press, via WBBM Newsradio, Chicago, IL:

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HANDS OVER NAMES OF TWO STUDENTS SUSPECTED OF FILE-SWAPPING

Wednesday, July 16, 2003, 7:26 a.m.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Loyola University Chicago, responding to a recording industry subpoena, has turned over the names of two students suspected of providing copyrighted music over the school's computer network, university officials said.

The students were linked to an Internet address listed in the July 7 subpoena by the Recording Industry Association of America, school officials said.

"We take these things seriously," said Rev. Richard Salmi, the university's vice president of student affairs. "We let students know that from time to time."

Salmi said the two students share a dorm room and were enrolled in summer school. He said their Internet access was terminated pending the outcome of the university's disciplinary proceedings.

Loyola declined to name the students publicly.

Education officials say that while universities are usually obligated to protect student privacy, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act eliminates those protections for students suspected of copyright infringement.

The RIAA, which represents the major recording companies, announced in June that it would begin suing individuals who take part in online music file-swapping. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Stay tuned to WBBM Newsradio 780 for the latest developments on this and other stories.

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