RIAA Explains To College Students Why They Shouldn’t Download The New Arcade Fire Album
Last week, the RIAA conducted a conference call with various college-newspaper writers, with whom they discussed their strategies for cracking down on campus downloaders. Emcees Without Voices obtained a transcript of the chat, and now everybody can watch as RIAA president Cary Sherman and executive VP (and general counsel) Steven Marks try to school the younguns on why students should put down the apple bong and call up their lawyer. Some choice excerpts after the click-through.
Sherman’s opening remarks set the tone for the chat, the thrust of which boils down to: Ohmigod, guys! Your favorite artists are, like, soooooo mad at you! To wit: “Many of you probably have a favorite local band on your campus. If music theft is allowed to continue at such unacceptably high levels, the chances of those bands getting signed to a record label deal will continue to diminish.” When you consider that this is coming from an industry that has long bullied emerging artists into crippling, unfairly balanced contracts, and that has reduced A&R departments to the size of a jazz trio, and that has put financial muscle behind doomed-to-fail megastars whose paychecks swallow up the entire roster’s budget, then…well, then, we actually forgot the point. Oh yeah: Dicks!
But after that liitle bit of condescending commentary, we get to the Q&A section. Fire away, kids!
How do you intend to prove that the student being charged actually did the downloading? What if they claim that someone stole their information or they forgot to log off of a common computer?
Steven Marks: We routinely deal with situations like this. For example, if a roommate comes forward as the person who engaged in the activity, we can drop the case against the original defendant and file a new case or settle with the roommate.
Take comfort, students: You may be sued if your roommate uses your computer to download MP3s, but all will be forgiven as long as your roommate comes forward. That happens all the time!
Mr. Marks, how effective will this new initiative be if universities refuse to give out individual user’s information and is there any legal ramifications for the universities themselves?
Steven Marks: We believe universities have every incentive to forward the letters to students. How would a student feel if his or her opportunity to settle at a substantial discount and before the lawsuit was filed on the public record was lost because the university did not forward the notice?
Yes, how would students feel if their school protected their privacy, rather than handing over their personal info to a deep-pocketed lobbying group? Oh bless you, RIAA! Your star just keeps shining!
What would the benefits be of settling? Would you be willing to drop all charges if a student deleated [sic] their files?
Cary Sherman: No, we don’t drop charges just because a student agrees to delete the illegal files. What kind of deterrence program would that be? Any student could infringe until caught, and all that he’d have to do to get out of trouble is delete the files? That’s why we’re very firm about this. When we file a lawsuit, we pursue it. The advantage of settling is that you can do it for less. In fact, the earlier in the process, the more reasonable the settlement.
Translation: Okay, you got us. We’re just plain broke.
Not So Quick Link: Transcript of RIAA (president and general counsel) chat with college newspapers [Emcees Without Voices]
