Should colleges and universities cooperate with the recording industry by sharing the names of students suspected of illegally downloading music?
12 Comments
Roger said:
Are colleges and universities the police? I don't spend my education tax dollars to aid industry policing or enforcing associations with their legal issues. Should public or private schools report ALL issues to industry, regardless of legality? In for a penny, in for a pound. Will educational institutions benefit from informing? Neutral is what the institutions should be.
Soup said:
No, of course not. If the recording industry wants to fine these users for downloading music they should do all of the legwork themselves. It's not the colleges job to play as stooges for the RIAA it's thier job to educate students. Frankly it's disgusting how quickly they jumped into the RIAA's pocket. This shows how out of touch the recording industry is with changing technology and the attitudes with it. People who download music for free have two different reasons for doing so: 1. They want to hear new material on a trial basis and if they like it enough they will see the artist live and buy thier merchandise which makes more money for the artist than CD sales anyway and 2. They don't want to pay for crap. If the industry stopped backing these factory produced cookie-cutter "artists" for the sole purpose of lining thier pockets and instead put attention behind people puching the boundries of musical genres perhaps they'd see the sales they so desperately need to buy that new Maserati. The cutting edge relationship between artist, internet, and fans is blurring the lines making the record industry an archaic throwback to times when actual art doesn't matter. With MySpace and CDBaby fans can communicate directly to the artists themselves and buy thier work directly from them. If the record industry doesn't evolve and stop looking at music fans as enemy combatants in the war against piracy, the very fans who pay thier wages will abandon them enmasse no matter how many lawsuits they serve. Shame on colleges for supporting the RIAA's agenda instead of focusing on thier purpose, educating people. The lesson here is for the students is thier colleges don't care about them. The lesson for the RIAA is our dollar is a vote and we won't vote for your crap.
rob said:
If it is against the law - then yes - federally funded public colleges should turn them over.
what are we teaching our new generation of workers? That it is ok to cheat and get away with it. The law is the law and no matter how you view it that is the way it is. Private colleges that do not receive the federal dollars should make the right choices and take a stand. You whiners are the same ones who want to make the millions of "Illegal" immigrants citizens, open the borders and everyone just hug and get along. Go hug a tree and vote for hillary
Wendy said:
Depends on why these students are suspected of illegal downloading. Is bandwidth being monitored on college connection, or would ANY iternet connection be included in the download ban?
If the college is reacting only to use of the colleges connection/bandwidth then they are within their rights to attempt inforcement of downloading restrictions.
Wendy said:
Depends on why these students are suspected of illegal downloading. Is bandwidth being monitored on college connection, or would ANY iternet connection be included in the download ban?
If the college is reacting only to use of the colleges connection/bandwidth then they are within their rights to attempt inforcement of downloading restrictions.
Jana said:
If students are using the campus computers for illegal purposes then I don't think the schools should be protecting the names of the students. I wouldn't expect the schools to go in search of these types of problems but when they are discovered then they should be dealt with. Good job UW!
cshell said:
I bought my car second hand. I often buy my clothes at second hand shops. I trade my books with friends and family. When I buy my books, I buy them second hand. I give away movies that my family no longer watches. I buy cd's at garage sales. What on earth do the colleges think that they are teaching the students? Big brother is always watching? We are a nation of hand-me-downs. Deal with it.
KC said:
Absolutely. Students are using state owned property (campus bandwidth)to complete illegal acts. Just as state employees are not allowed to use the computers for private use students should not be either. Stealing is stealing and if the Universities don't blow the whistle on the illegal acts of their students they are aiding and abeting theft. Let's call it what it is THEFT. Everyone is warned ahead of time so the young people are flaunting the law. Are we or are we not a nation of laws?
This bandwidth is paid for by the citizens of the state. Do you want your tax dollars paying for illegal activity? Remember, in their tuition, students are only paying a portion of the cost of their education. I, and other taxpayers, am paying for the rest. I for one don't want to abet illegal activity.
Rick B said:
Bigger issue here is what does it say about student's illeagel activity on school's official computer network if UW allows it to continue? Are we sending young adults to school to learn how to break laws ? Or is there a responsibility to society to teach "Rule of Law" as a part of being a member of society? There are no excuses for stealing someone's property...PERIOD !
To condone it is to mock what is ethicaly right.
Re: Soup@ 08:19 ... If you dislike RIAA's agenda then do not give them the legal opening to college databases by using them for illeagel activities. It is an individual's responsibility to society to live within the laws of one's country. Don't like the laws, then change them using the system of laws that exist to do just that. If you spent as much time learning how to do that instead of breaking laws, by now you would most likely have started the movement to change them.
Relevant said:
If a COURT OF LAW feels that a law has been broken and they issue a subpoena, then yes, the school should fully cooperate and disclose names and school computer records. If a CORPORATION, which is what the RIAA is, wants information so that they can go to the courts to get an indictment, then absolutely not.
I'm not condoning the illegal downloads of copywritten music without the artists consent. But to think that some of you feel that a University should comply with a corporations request for student information is rediculous.
As law abiding citizens, we should discourage our children from breaking the law, obviously. However, what the RIAA is doing is just a simple Witch Hunt and we should not be supporting those actions. How would you feel if the police came knocking at your door to ask you information about a possible theft and when you inquired about how or why they came to you, they said that it happened at Fred Meyers and Fred Meyers gave them a list of all the people who were in the store at the time of the theft? Fred Meyer could easily do that by going through their receipts and tracing it back through checks, credit cards and Fred Meyer cards. That is basically what the RIAA is asking the Universities to do, check all their records, during a specific period of time, and give them the names of all the people online so they have an easier time of researching potential violators.
So many people on this sight love to complain about "tree hugging liberals" and "uptight conservatives". How about we just act like people and take responsibility for our own actions. How many of you are up in arms when a marketing company buys your information from some store that you have patronized? This is exactly what the RIAA is asking for. Only they don't want to buy the information, they want someone to give it to them for free.
George Greene said:
In this new age of terrorism we are all serving in the role of the police. The more eyes and ears plus communication the better. To arbitrarily draw a line around our
'job' to the exclusion of what could be happening is being nieve and very sholrt sighted.
It's difficult for musicians to get a start these days, and college students tend to be the breaking ground of new talent (and a target market of record companies). The fact that colleges can be seen as facilitating piracy by providing the bandwidth to students is a pro and a con from a musician's perspective: it provides increased exposure to desiring artists, but also usurps the artists' desire to get a start in the industry by cutting profit.
A couple aspiring-artist friends of mine were easily able to get their music on iTunes and would make money on each and every individual download, but savvy students often know ways of redistributing music forcing starving artists to rely on record companies for a starting chance. Today, it's as though it's not enough to be a good musician: one must also be internet-smart, and a very intelligent businessperson. Maybe this might even the playing field a bit more?
It's hard to know the long term effects of such change, but I think it can only be good for artists who are struggling already in an environment where media can easily be accessed and redistributed.
Are colleges and universities the police? I don't spend my education tax dollars to aid industry policing or enforcing associations with their legal issues. Should public or private schools report ALL issues to industry, regardless of legality? In for a penny, in for a pound. Will educational institutions benefit from informing? Neutral is what the institutions should be.
No, of course not. If the recording industry wants to fine these users for downloading music they should do all of the legwork themselves. It's not the colleges job to play as stooges for the RIAA it's thier job to educate students. Frankly it's disgusting how quickly they jumped into the RIAA's pocket. This shows how out of touch the recording industry is with changing technology and the attitudes with it. People who download music for free have two different reasons for doing so: 1. They want to hear new material on a trial basis and if they like it enough they will see the artist live and buy thier merchandise which makes more money for the artist than CD sales anyway and 2. They don't want to pay for crap. If the industry stopped backing these factory produced cookie-cutter "artists" for the sole purpose of lining thier pockets and instead put attention behind people puching the boundries of musical genres perhaps they'd see the sales they so desperately need to buy that new Maserati. The cutting edge relationship between artist, internet, and fans is blurring the lines making the record industry an archaic throwback to times when actual art doesn't matter. With MySpace and CDBaby fans can communicate directly to the artists themselves and buy thier work directly from them. If the record industry doesn't evolve and stop looking at music fans as enemy combatants in the war against piracy, the very fans who pay thier wages will abandon them enmasse no matter how many lawsuits they serve. Shame on colleges for supporting the RIAA's agenda instead of focusing on thier purpose, educating people. The lesson here is for the students is thier colleges don't care about them. The lesson for the RIAA is our dollar is a vote and we won't vote for your crap.
If it is against the law - then yes - federally funded public colleges should turn them over.
what are we teaching our new generation of workers? That it is ok to cheat and get away with it. The law is the law and no matter how you view it that is the way it is. Private colleges that do not receive the federal dollars should make the right choices and take a stand. You whiners are the same ones who want to make the millions of "Illegal" immigrants citizens, open the borders and everyone just hug and get along. Go hug a tree and vote for hillary
Depends on why these students are suspected of illegal downloading. Is bandwidth being monitored on college connection, or would ANY iternet connection be included in the download ban?
If the college is reacting only to use of the colleges connection/bandwidth then they are within their rights to attempt inforcement of downloading restrictions.
Depends on why these students are suspected of illegal downloading. Is bandwidth being monitored on college connection, or would ANY iternet connection be included in the download ban?
If the college is reacting only to use of the colleges connection/bandwidth then they are within their rights to attempt inforcement of downloading restrictions.
If students are using the campus computers for illegal purposes then I don't think the schools should be protecting the names of the students. I wouldn't expect the schools to go in search of these types of problems but when they are discovered then they should be dealt with. Good job UW!
I bought my car second hand. I often buy my clothes at second hand shops. I trade my books with friends and family. When I buy my books, I buy them second hand. I give away movies that my family no longer watches. I buy cd's at garage sales. What on earth do the colleges think that they are teaching the students? Big brother is always watching? We are a nation of hand-me-downs. Deal with it.
Absolutely. Students are using state owned property (campus bandwidth)to complete illegal acts. Just as state employees are not allowed to use the computers for private use students should not be either. Stealing is stealing and if the Universities don't blow the whistle on the illegal acts of their students they are aiding and abeting theft. Let's call it what it is THEFT. Everyone is warned ahead of time so the young people are flaunting the law. Are we or are we not a nation of laws?
This bandwidth is paid for by the citizens of the state. Do you want your tax dollars paying for illegal activity? Remember, in their tuition, students are only paying a portion of the cost of their education. I, and other taxpayers, am paying for the rest. I for one don't want to abet illegal activity.
Bigger issue here is what does it say about student's illeagel activity on school's official computer network if UW allows it to continue? Are we sending young adults to school to learn how to break laws ? Or is there a responsibility to society to teach "Rule of Law" as a part of being a member of society? There are no excuses for stealing someone's property...PERIOD !
To condone it is to mock what is ethicaly right.
Re: Soup@ 08:19 ... If you dislike RIAA's agenda then do not give them the legal opening to college databases by using them for illeagel activities. It is an individual's responsibility to society to live within the laws of one's country. Don't like the laws, then change them using the system of laws that exist to do just that. If you spent as much time learning how to do that instead of breaking laws, by now you would most likely have started the movement to change them.
If a COURT OF LAW feels that a law has been broken and they issue a subpoena, then yes, the school should fully cooperate and disclose names and school computer records. If a CORPORATION, which is what the RIAA is, wants information so that they can go to the courts to get an indictment, then absolutely not.
I'm not condoning the illegal downloads of copywritten music without the artists consent. But to think that some of you feel that a University should comply with a corporations request for student information is rediculous.
As law abiding citizens, we should discourage our children from breaking the law, obviously. However, what the RIAA is doing is just a simple Witch Hunt and we should not be supporting those actions. How would you feel if the police came knocking at your door to ask you information about a possible theft and when you inquired about how or why they came to you, they said that it happened at Fred Meyers and Fred Meyers gave them a list of all the people who were in the store at the time of the theft? Fred Meyer could easily do that by going through their receipts and tracing it back through checks, credit cards and Fred Meyer cards. That is basically what the RIAA is asking the Universities to do, check all their records, during a specific period of time, and give them the names of all the people online so they have an easier time of researching potential violators.
So many people on this sight love to complain about "tree hugging liberals" and "uptight conservatives". How about we just act like people and take responsibility for our own actions. How many of you are up in arms when a marketing company buys your information from some store that you have patronized? This is exactly what the RIAA is asking for. Only they don't want to buy the information, they want someone to give it to them for free.
In this new age of terrorism we are all serving in the role of the police. The more eyes and ears plus communication the better. To arbitrarily draw a line around our
'job' to the exclusion of what could be happening is being nieve and very sholrt sighted.
It's difficult for musicians to get a start these days, and college students tend to be the breaking ground of new talent (and a target market of record companies). The fact that colleges can be seen as facilitating piracy by providing the bandwidth to students is a pro and a con from a musician's perspective: it provides increased exposure to desiring artists, but also usurps the artists' desire to get a start in the industry by cutting profit.
A couple aspiring-artist friends of mine were easily able to get their music on iTunes and would make money on each and every individual download, but savvy students often know ways of redistributing music forcing starving artists to rely on record companies for a starting chance. Today, it's as though it's not enough to be a good musician: one must also be internet-smart, and a very intelligent businessperson. Maybe this might even the playing field a bit more?
It's hard to know the long term effects of such change, but I think it can only be good for artists who are struggling already in an environment where media can easily be accessed and redistributed.