Play it smart: RIAA continues to target college students
Dear CO-STAR:
I've heard rumors that people are getting sued again for downloading music, that college students are being targeted and getting sued by the hundreds. I've got a couple of questions. First, is this true? Second, I've got some downloading software on my computer from a long time ago, and some songs I downloaded way back when. Is just having that stuff on my computer illegal? Can they come after me for that?
- Bradley, Sophomore, Private College or University, Washington
Bradley:
OK first things first. What you've heard about the lawsuits, or more accurately pending lawsuits, is true. College students have come under fire in an ongoing campaign to stop illegal downloading.
This is all being done by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA is the same organization that's filed all the lawsuits you've heard about for the last couple years. They started this campaign in 1999 and since then have come after thousands and thousands of downloaders.
So you've been at risk for getting served by the RIAA the whole time you've been in college. The difference now is: they're targeting you. Supposedly college students illegally download 1.3 billion dollars worth of music and movies annually. So the RIAA is singling you guys out. In February they sent legal papers to students at 15 schools. At the end of March they went after 405 more students at 23 different campuses. They've vowed to serve similar amounts of students each month for the foreseeable future.
Now, will they come after you because you've still got Kazaa installed on your hard drive and a bunch of ‘N Sync songs you downloaded in 2000 stowed away in some file? Probably not. What the RIAA is monitoring is current (meaning in the last couple months or so - these suits are moving forward on a rolling basis remember) activity at one of the peer-to-peer sharing sites. So stay off those and you should be fine.
That said, why not get that software (and that awful music) out of you life anyway. It is still technically stolen property. It won't get you attention from the RIAA. But having it IS breaking the law.
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C.L. Lindsay III is the founding executive director of CO-STAR, the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights, and author of the book "The College Student's Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party and More!" in bookstores now. CO-STAR is a network of lawyers, professors and students who work to protect academic freedom and constitutional rights at college campuses nationwide. If you have a question for CO-STAR, log on to their Web site at www.co-star.org.
The material in this column addresses general legal issues only; is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such; and may or may not be appropriate to a specific situation. Laws and procedures change frequently and are subject to differing interpretations. This column is not intended to create, and does not create, a lawyer-client relationship and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.
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© 2007, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
