Recording Industry Follows Through on Threats to Sue

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Brian Wm. Higgins

Summary:  Maryland residents are latest targets of record industry lawsuits aimed at stopping digital music file sharing


     Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent 403 pre-litigation settlement letters to 22 universities, including the University of Maryland - College Park, alleging illegal copying and distribution of RIAA-member copyrighted sound (music) recordings. In addition to the letters, the RIAA filed 24 copyright infringement lawsuits against previous recipients of pre-litigation letters who allegedly ignored "settlement opportunities." According to an RIAA statement, the lawsuits were filed in federal courts against students, including students reportedly attending the University of Maryland. As shown below, two of the lawsuits were filed in the District Court for the District of Maryland by Matthew J. Oppenheim, Esq., RIAA's lawyer (and a Maryland resident himself, according to public property records).

     One of Mr. Oppenheim's lawsuits, BMG Music et al v. Norwood, 07cv02480 (D. Md. 2007), was served on Sarah Norwood, a St. Leonard, MD (Calvert County), resident (according to RIAA's complaint).  The suit is predicated solely on a claim that on April 28, 2007, Ms. Norwood distributed 377 audio files over the Gnutella peer-to-peer network from a computer having the IP address 69.251.74.83 (which is a Comcast.net IP address: click here to see for yourself).

     The Record Industry vs The People blog describes what happens during RIAA-initiated litigation, which could best be described as somewhat heavy handed. Here's how the authors of the blog describe the "settlement opportunities":

"After getting the name and address of the person who paid for the internet access account, they then send him or her a letter demanding a "settlement".

Their settlement is usually for $3750, non-negotiable, and contains numerous one-sided and unusual provisions, such as a representation that peer to peer file sharing of copyrighted music is a copyright infringement (a representation that is far too broad, undoubtedly there are 'sharing' behaviors with digital files, as there are with cd's, that are not copyright infringements). Even certain innocuous provisions, worded in a way to make them obligations of the defendant but not the RIAA, are deemed 'non-negotiable'. At bottom, the settlement is cold comfort to the defendant, because it does not speak for the other potential plaintiffs -- the owners of the copyrighted work, or the other record companies not represented by the RIAA litigation fund. That this omission is significant is illustrated by the new wave of copyright enforcement actions by music publishers against guitar tablature sites. There is nothing to prevent them from suing the individuals who have settled with the RIAA over the sound recording rights.

The newest wrinkle in the RIAA's pre-litigation settlement strategy is to encourage "early settlements" prior to commencement of a litigation. The RIAA has even set up a web site where people can go to make these settlements. The RIAA has stated that the settlements will be for a $1000 or more less than otherwise. However the first such settlement we have heard of is for $3500, which is only $250 less. We have heard of $3000 settlements being "offered" to college students. The RIAA has opened this initiative on two fronts, (1) the ISP's, and (2) colleges and universities. Some colleges have cooperated, forwarding the RIAA letters to the students, some have not. It remains to be seen how the ISP's will react.

     The other Maryland lawsuit initiated by the RIAA and Mr. Oppenheim is captioned Warner Bros. Records et al v. Nwosu, 07cv02479 (D. Md. 2007), which pits RIAA members against Ms. Nnenna Nwosu, who, according to RIAA's complaint, is a College Park resident.

     What continues to intrique many who follow the RIAA's legal blitz, which has reportedly targeted close to 23,000 individuals over the last four years, is how unresponsive downloaders are to the industry's threats on the one hand, and how slow (reluctant?) the recording industry is to create a new paradigm for generating revenues from its copyrighted sound recordings in the face of continued file sharing on the other.  Kevin Robillard's recent article entitled "University Network Still the Wild, Wild West," published in the University of Maryland's The Diamondback, is reflective of the attitudes among college students: they remain devotees of illegal file sharing, many of whom say it's unlikely they will ever purchase legal copies of music. What does that say about the relationship the RIAA's litigation arm has created with one of the music industry's largest consumer groups?

Comments:

  • See Prof. Mike O'Donnell's (University of Chicago) comment here on the assumptions made by the RIAA about IP addresses being associated with a particular defendant.  Another related post can be found at p2pnet.
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Downloading Music Benefits Both Consumers and Artists, Study Finds

Posted on August 28, 2007 by Brian Wm. Higgins

     Idling behind a yellow school bus early this morning, I spotted a continuing trend among the dozen teenagers waiting at my neighborhood bus stop:  about half were sporting those ubiquitous white earphone nibs attached to pocket-sized MP3 players. I couldn't help thinking of all of the other Maryland students who would be packing into dorm rooms, classrooms, and on-line chat rooms this week--the first week of school for many in Maryland--where they would reflect on a summer's worth of music downloads and new music sites discovered on the Internet. That thought peaked my curiosity, so I went in search of the latest information about music downloading to see what others are saying about how the music downloading phenomena has impacted copyright laws (and vice versa) in the U.S. 

     I found what I was looking for at Mark Cooper's blog at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.  Last week, Mark posted the following interesting summary about music downloading:

"Less than a decade after the advent of file sharing, sales figures indicate that the recording industry sold more singles than albums and unsigned artists sold more singles than record labels. Thus, the digital communications revolution has transformed the creation and distribution of music to the benefit of both consumers and artists."

Mark's entire research article can be found at "Digital Downloading of Music: A Big Pay-Off for Consumers and Artists in the Digital Broadband Era" (it's only 7 pages long, with several revealing historical time-series charts; definitely worth a closer read).

     So consumers and artist are benefiting from the availability of digital music on the Internet.  Not a big surprise.  To see what the record industry had to say about that, I visited the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) web site (the RIAA is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry).  RIAA has apparently kicked off the new school year by sending out its seventh round of pre-litigation letters to universities across the U.S. alleging unlawful music downloads on university networks (58 universities were targeted in this round of letters; click here to see if your university is among those reportedly receiving pre-litigation notice).  RIAA's web site states the following about the letters:

"Each pre-litigation settlement letter informs the school of a forthcoming copyright infringement suit against one of its students or personnel and requests that university administrators forward that letter to the appropriate network user."

     The reason for the letters?  According to RIAA's web site,

"[a] survey by Student Monitor from last year found that more than half of college students download music and movies illegally.  According to market research firm NPD, college students alone accounted for more than 1.3 billion illegal music downloads in 2006."  

     I wonder who sponsored the Student Monitor and NPD research firms to arrive at those figures?  In any case, to get a balanced perspective, I visited Eric Bangeman's blog post entitled "Digital Freedom Campaign to organize students against RIAA abuse," posted last April, which summarizes and frames the music downloading issues from another view point.

     Finally, I visited the University of Maryland web site to see what's happening at a local level.  On July 26, 2007, the University issued an announcement entitled Ruckus Digital Music and Entertainment Network Now Available at the University of Maryland.  The Ruckus arrangement is apparently Maryland's attempt to "address[] illegal peer-to-peer file sharing" by University students.  The service is not free, of course.  If you're a student at Maryland and have used the new music downloading service, send me your comments concerning whether your believe it has or will curtail illegal digital music sharing over campus networks.

     So there you have it:  a brief spattering of news about music downloading and copyright issues.  Note: in all fairness to students, who may begrudge being singled out in this post, they are obviously not the only group that downloads music and/or shares music files over the Internet.

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