WEB PIRATES TARGETED STUDENTS WHO USED CAMPUS SUPERNETWORK TO BE SUED.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer The movie and recording industries are filing separate lawsuits today against hundreds of college students across the U.S. who they claim illegally downloaded music or movies on their school's supercharged su·per·charge tr.v. su·per·charged, su·per·charg·ing, su·per·charg·es 1. To increase the power of (an engine, for example), as by fitting with a supercharger. 2. Internet2 network, primarily by using the i2hub file-swapping service. The Recording Industry Association of America said Tuesday that it plans to sue more than 400 students at 18 schools, including Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. , ``This next generation of the Internet is an extraordinarily exciting tool for researchers, technologists and many others with valuable legitimate uses,'' RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, Washington, DC, www.riaa.com) A membership association of music recording companies. Its goal is to promote the record label industry and protect the rights of copyright owners. It was a major contributor to the SDMI digital distribution system. President Cary Sherman Cary H. Sherman is currently the President of the Recording Industry Association of America. He graduated from Cornell University in 1968, and Harvard Law School in 1971.[1] References 1. ^ [1] said in a statement. ``Yet, we cannot let this high-speed network become a zone of lawlessness where the normal rules don't apply.'' The transmission speeds on Internet2 are faster than broadband speed and make it possible for movie files to be downloaded in five minutes and music files in 20 seconds. The Motion Picture Association of America did not disclose how many students it will sue but said seven universities, including the University of California, San Diego UCSD is consistently ranked among the top ten public universities for undergraduate education in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[3] It is a Public Ivy. [1] For graduate studies, most of UCSD's Ph.D. , are involved. The MPAA MPAA abbr. Motion Picture Association of America will also send warning letters to the presidents of 141 other schools where the activity is allegedly occurring. ``These people are Internet thieves and we will not stand by while they steal millions of dollars of copyrighted material with no regard for the law,'' MPAA President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Dan Glickman Daniel Robert "Dan" Glickman (born November 24, 1944) is an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1995 until 2001, prior to which he represented the Fourth Congressional District of Kansas as a Democrat in Congress for 18 years. said at a press conference Tuesday. ``Our message to these thieves is clear: You are not anonymous and you will be held responsible. You can click but you cannot hide.'' The RIAA said piracy is partly to blame for worldwide sales of recorded music being down to $33.6 billion in 2004, a significant drop from a peak of $39.7 billion in 2000. Meanwhile, the MPAA estimates that online piracy currently costs the industry about $3.5 billion annually in revenues. Under the United States Copyright Act, each violator could be subject to fines of between $30,000 and $150,000 per violation for music or movie downloading. Glickman said that while digital file sharing ``is the way of the future,'' the movie studios want to help educate students about the legal ways to get films online through services like Ruckus, Cdigix, CinemaNow and Movielink. There are also several legal online music sites such as iTunes. The education process will be a daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin one with the current generation of students already seemingly entrenched en·trench also in·trench v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. in the practice of downloading movies and music without paying. ``It's rampant,'' said UCSD UCSD University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, California) UCSD User Centered System Design UCSD Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (Illinois) UCSD Ultra Cool Sexy Dudes sophomore Joe Naddour, 19. ``i2hub is extremely fast, equal with the connection on campus. It's very easy to set it up and begin downloading and get any movie or song you want for free.'' Naddour, a political science major and a member of UCSD's Thurgood Marshall College Thurgood Marshall College (or TMC) is one of the six undergraduate colleges at the University of California, San Diego. The college, named after Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and lawyer for the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Student Council, said no remorse is evident. ``I don't think they feel like they did anything wrong by simply clicking a button,'' he said. ``In the minds of students, it's a victimless crime. You're not really going to be shedding too many tears for a record label or a movie studio.'' John Malcom, director of worldwide piracy operations for the MPAA, said the lawsuits should serve as a wake-up call to all students and make them aware that they are leaving a cyber trail of evidence. ``i2 hub is being massively abused to leech off the back of Internet2,'' Malcom said. ``Obviously the people who use i2hub, they're not anonymous. There are ways to monitor i2hub.'' Malcom would only say ``we are considering our options'' when asked if the MPAA planned to sue the administrators of i2hub. ``The people who have been running i2hub have been hiding in plain sight,'' he said. ``There's a pretty fair warning that we are looking closely at i2hub and I would encourage them to take immediate action right now. We are aware of some of the individuals involved. We are continuing to study the situation.'' None of the names of those being sued today will be released since court-issued subpoenas will be used to determine their identities. But the MPAA plans to release the names of some of the defendants in the first round of lawsuits it filed in November. Some of those initially sued have settled the lawsuits and there names will not be made public. Greg Hernandez, (818) 713-3758 greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com |
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