17 October 2005

RIAA lawsuits against file sharers

Major record labels sue Pitt student, others

Check today's Pitt News to read the latest regarding the Recording Industry Association of America's new lawsuits against file sharers:

http://www.pittnews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/17/435330ec191e9

It's been interesting to follow the RIAA as they attempt to stop the sharing of copyrighted music. While recent activity has focused on lawsuits, early attempts included putting messages on user (filesharers) screens stating: "When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC."

Hacking was also addressed: "On July 25, 2002, California representative Howard Berman proposed a bill in Congress which would allow the recording industry to legally hack into systems suspected of sharing copyrighted material." The bill included allowing "disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise impairing the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network."

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