p2p

06 May

More from the RIAA

Posted by bleckb in copyright, ethics, intellectual property, p2p, riaa

InsideHigherEd.com reports that the music industry is engaging in something akin to preemptive strikes. The article Mysterious Multiplication of Copyright Complaints takes a look at the speculative reasons behind increase in complaints lodged with a variety of colleges and universities, both big and small, despite no evidence of an increase in illegally shared files.

The new complaints seem to be resulting in an increased reluctance to pursue alleged violations. For instance,

Indiana officials are now discussing whether they should continue to respond to complaints from the recording industry with the same aggressiveness. It’s not that university leaders have suddenly decided that illegal behavior isn’t wrong; instead, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of the notices the Recording Industry Association of America sends accusing network users of illegally sharing music.

One commenter in the discussion noted that the investigative arm of the RIAA is now referred to as a "contractor" rather than investigator.

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29 Jan

more on mpaa math error

Posted by bleckb in cyberculture, intellectual property, p2p

Inside Higher Ed is reporting today on the 300% Error made by the MPAA when they claimed in 2005 that college students are responsible for nearly 45% of illegal movie downloads, which they revised downward to 15% recently. The big question, who is the other 85%? Wonder what the RIAA thinks of this?

23 Jan

Oops: MPAA admits college piracy numbers grossly inflated

Posted by cel4145 in mpaa, p2p

Ars Technica reports that MPAA data regarding losses from student downloading for 2005 were way over estimated:

After commissioning a 2005 study from LEK Consulting that showed collegiate file-swappers were responsible for 44 percent of movie studio "losses" to piracy, the MPAA then used the report it bought to bludgeon Congress into considering legislation to address this massive problem. Now the MPAA admits that the report's conclusions weren't even close to being right; collegiate piracy accounts for only 15 percent of "losses." Oops. And that's assuming you believe the rest of the data.

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09 Jan

Sharing Scholarly Research Materials with Zotero

Posted by cel4145 in p2p, zotero

Wired Campus Blog reports that the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University wants to build an upload tool into Zotero which allow scholars to share their research materials. In principle, this is a great idea. But there's a better, well-proven technological method for sharing files that doesn't require scholars to load them into a database. It's called P2P, and it's surprising that Wired Campus Blog didn't comment on this given that they appropriated the "share" rhetoric of P2P in the title of their post, New Effort Encourages Professors to Share the Research Materials on Their Hard Drives. I thought it was going to be about P2P before I even read it. Has P2P gotten such a bad name in the academy that the power of its potential legitimate use is not considered?

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01 Jan

RIAA bowing down to Washington (University of)?

Posted by bleckb in copyright, fair use, higher education, p2p

A story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer indicates more resistance, maybe even growing resistance, to the RIAA strategy of going after students through the institution they attend. Here's the lead:

The University of Washington is evaluating reports that 16 students illegally downloaded music on campus computers, and officials say they won't pass along letters from the Recording Industry Association of America asking for thousands of dollars until they can identify the students at fault.

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