Did you know that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) uses LimeWire to catch music pirates? In case you've never heard of Limewire, it's a file sharing program that lets users connect to other users around the world in order to share music/files/video. However, some of the files shared are copyrighted. Hence, laws are broken when they're copied from user to user.
Here's the jist of it:
A) The RIAA hired a company to use Limewire to track illegal downloading.
B) The company uses a list of copyrighted songs to see who's trading illegally.
C) The IP address of the user is tracked to discover the user's network
D) Songs are sampled to discover if they are in fact the copywritten song in question. Depending on the situation, the songs are downloaded and listened to by a human or digitally compared to a copywritten file.
E) In smaller cases, the service provider/college is contacted with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice asking them to remove infringing content from its network.
F) In larger cases, the RIAA sends the service provider/college a prelitigation settlement letter allowing them to settle for several thousand dollars in lieu of going to court.
G) The process for dealing with colleges is mostly automated, while the process for dealing with service providers is completely manual.
The following article further details how the process works. Check it out here and answer one of the following questions:
1) Research the Web using Google to find out what content is included in a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice.
2) Why do you think people share music even if it's illegal?
3) Should Limewire be held responsible for the actions of its users? Why or why not?
4) Should colleges be held responsible for the actions of its students? Why or why not?
5) Research the Web using Google to find out what content is included in a RIAA prelitigation settlement letter.
6) Why do you think college's have a difficult time accepting the fact that illegal downloads occur on their networks?
7) What are the benefits and drawbacks to using an automated process to discover piracy.
Here's a You Tube Video based on a Weird Al song on music piracy. Enjoy!
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15 comments:
People share music even if it's illegal because they don't want to buy a CD for a few songs,they may only like 1 or 2 and it's available online for free, so why not. The people who download it don't sell it and the artists still make ALOT of money.
Colleges shouldn't be held responsible for what the students do on their network and isn't that already applied in the technology rules?
@Jaime,
I've read that artists make very little money on downloads. The record labels are the ones who profit heavily.
Just because there are technology rules doesn't mean they're followed.
The amount of money depends on the contract which is made up between the artist and record label company. It's the same thing for authors. I worked for Vladimir Nabokov's agent. There are royalties constantly, remember $100 to us is a dollar to them, so they may think they are not making a lot. Those spas vacations, limousines, and houses cost a lot of money :)
@Jaime,
Your comment is absolutely correct, however, there is a lot of money that these artists make which is spent on illegal drugs. So we as the consumers are indirectly fueling substance abuse as well as other crimes. I personally think that the record companies take too much of a cut out of the artist's sales.
True.
You know, this all relates back to the textbook issue also. How do artists/publishers make their money? The internet has drastically changed the way information is transferred and the legal-eales are still trying to figure out how to make their bucks. I understand that an artist creates a song and wants to be paid for it, but for how long? Patents on products/drugs, etc. have end dates - maybe music should at some point be free of royalties. I would think they would get a lot of satisfaction from just having their music hear/played. Who knows!
Also, I don't know if anyone heard, but there was an employee of a investment company that had downloaded music through Limwire and inadvertently opened a portal into their company records. Severl hundred customers had their information stolen, including; social security #'s, names, address, etc. One was even a Supreme Justice - bet he was torched! Anyway, unfortunately, when you do things illegally you have no one to blame but yourself for the damage. I'm sure that employee is long gone, and hopes his name never comes up for that big blunder.
I also don't believe the college should be held responsible for what students download - part of the 'fee speech' and access to literature and music comes with a responsibility of the user to be ethical - if they chose not to, the college can't be the 'police'.
I was not familiar with Limewire before reading this article. . Since it is a payed service it should be up to Limewire to police the site and be accoutable for some of the fines. I absoultely agree with Marsh that it is not the college's responsible to monitor students downloads.
Music artists are so overpaid to begin with. I mean how much money do they realy need. Whats the big deal if people share music via lime wire, ive done it! Besides people love music because it makes them feel good and can take there problems and put them aside. I think it all comes down to greed. Let people share music. Limewire should not be held responsible for giving people the oppurtunity to feel good by downloading music. Its our right
Vincent, EXACTLY.
People may download music to sample what they are considering buying before they do. If a CD only has one or two good tracks and one can get it for free I don't see why they would buy the entire thing. Some do not know or care about the harm they might cause through doing so because it is available to everyone to download if they wish to.
@Jen,
You could buy the one or two songs LEGALLY through iTunes.
@Vincent,
There are very few rich musicians out there and very many poor ones. Do you really believe that musicians shouldn't make any money from music that makes you feel good inside?
Putting a copyright on music, is sort of like putting a patent license on an invention. By securing your idea, one can make sure that nobody else can copy their idea. If they use their idea, then permission has to be granted and compensation has to be given.
I still think the record companies are ripping everyone off.
The record companies are also the people who cause artists to sell out too. Many of the music producers suggest to artists that they should try a new sound or new approach, in order to sell more records.
In the end, its the record companies, who are the greedy ones.
There are certain musical artists who do not like the fact that people have to pay for their music. Ex, Kid Rock does not want anyone to pay for his songs through Itunes.
Others, feel that everyone should have to pay for their music. ex, Lars Ulrich of Metallica. His battle with Napster was the first big controversy surrounding music downloading via the internet.
Yes Kid Rock said "Don’t Just Steal Music, Steal Everything." He said that he’s boycotting iTunes because between Apple and the labels, they’re keeping all the money. Money makes the world mad and sad.
I think that people download music illegally simply because they do not want to pay to get their music. Take for example downloading music on sites where you must pay $0.99 cents per song in order to get music that you want. After a while this can add up to a couple of hundred of dollars. Why would someone do this when they can get their music for free on sites like Lime Wire? On the other hand, companies have a very legitimate argument in that this is stealing and people should pay in some way for music that they download. I think that consumers and also music companies should find some common ground where both can get what they want and this process can be done legally.
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