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US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion
US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Sacrificial Lambs
HP Time-limits Ink Cartridges
Saturday, May 3, 2003
Will the RIAA Pursue Individuals?
I've been thinking about this RIAA/college student settlement and just what it means for the RIAA. There are a couple of points in this Yahoo! News article worth examining.
Students Sued by Record Companies Settle Download Case. Yahoo! May 1 2003 6:24PM ETIt's clear the RIAA wasn't interested in going to court, and neither were the students. It's also clear the RIAA wasn't interested in proving, or recovering, damages:[...] Daniel Peng at Princeton University in New Jersey and Joseph Nievelt at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich., agreed to pay $15,000 to the recording companies, while Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., agreed to pay $12,000 and $17,500, respectively. The students will make the payments on installment plans over the next several years.
The settlements resolve the first phase of what could be a risky legal gambit by the major record labels, including AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites)'s BMG, to combat online music piracy, a phenomenon the labels blame for declining music sales. Recording industry executives said the lawsuits have resulted in at least 18 campus-wide file sharing networks being taken down, adding that they may ask for stiffer settlement terms in future legal actions. [...]
[...] But in suing individuals, particularly university students, analysts and attorneys believe the recording industry may risk alienating a wider swath of music fans. [...] [Moreover - Online legal issues news]
[...] Mr. Jordan added that his son's $12,000 settlement "happens to be the same amount of money that is the total of his bank account. That is money he has saved up over the course of working three years to save money for college." [...]Looking at Title 17, Sec 504 says the copyright owner can request statutory damages of between $750 to $30,000 per infringement. In cases of willful infringement the court may, at its discretion, increase statutory damages to not more than $150,000 per infringement. A kid trading tunes from just a handful of CDs could face as much $4 to $6 million in statutory damages. But there is more, if you are a willful infringer:
Title 17, Sec. 506 Criminal OffensesAmong other things, Title 18 Sec. 2319 lists prison terms of 1 to 10 years for first offenders, plus fines (additive to any damages awarded under Title 17.) The remedies in the code are clearly written to curtail large-scale criminal infringers, particularly with regard to profiteering. In fact, Sec. 2319 refers repeatedly to the infringer's profits.
(a) Criminal Infringement.-Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either-shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, United States Code.
- for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or
- by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
So what we have here is a game of legal chicken. The criminal code views copyright infringement as a criminal endeavor of significant proportions. Its remedies never anticipated the occurrence of common, everyday file trading among lowly students with no profit motive or criminal intent. But if the RIAA ever gets a kid in court it is not clear just how it will play out. There is a risk of having the hammer fall on some hapless student and putting a very human face on the whole situation.
It's one thing to go after some high profile file trading company in Antigua, or a couple of venture capitalists that can afford really good lawyers and big settlements. It's entirely another to be seen winning million dollar awards and locking up college kids for doing something most people aren't even sure is wrong. There is simply no public perception that file trading justifies the kind of remedies in the code, especially when there is no profit motive.
I think this is why the RIAA has been so slow in going after individuals and why they are focused on getting lots of PR and then settling for small amounts. There is risk of a serious public backlash if they push too hard. It wouldn't take but one outrageous court case to bring home the ludicrous nature of current copyright law to the parents of every college student in America. Next thing you know, some politician is grandstanding on the idea of legalizing file trading, and the RIAA is in deep shit.
Given their pathetic track record at PR this could certainly happen. In the end it could well be the human face they create that ultimately leads to changes in the copyright code that so desperately want to maintain.
Terry Frazier at 12:35 AM
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Friday, May 2, 2003
US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion
ZDNet's Charles Cooper discusses the USTR flap noted Wednesday.U.S. may add to copyright confusion. ZDNet May 2 2003 7:58AM ET [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:30 PM
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US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
More on info on the USTR's program of creating a worldwide oligopoly for the US Copyright Cabal.
Text: U.S. Releases Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property. Washington File May 2 2003 0:17AM ET[...] USTR placed 36 trading partners on the watch list for IPR violations: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Another 11 trading partners, including the European Union (EU), were placed on the priority watch list, which entails a greater level of scrutiny. The 11 trading partners are Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, EU, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and Taiwan. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:25 PM
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RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Interesting note in this Wired article regarding the RIAA suit against four college students. All four settled for relatively small amounts -- small, given the millions and millions of dollars RIAA claimed to be losing from their efforts.While the settlement amounts are not insignificant for a college student, it's less than the cost of a top-line Hyundai. Can such a settlement set a precedent for realistic values in future file trading suits?
This seems an interesting balance the RIAA is trying to strike between public hysteria to drive new laws but more restrained actions against actors in their prime target market.
How, exactly, do you treat the vast majority of your customers as criminals while still trying to market to them? Interesting dilemma...
School Blocks Out File-Trading. Amid growing pressure from the Recording Association of America to stamp out illegal file-trading on university campuses, a New Jersey school takes matters into its own hands. By Katie Dean.[...] On Thursday, all four students named in the complaints -- Aaron Sherman and Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daniel Peng of Princeton and Joe Nievelt of Michigan Technological University -- settled with the music trade group for between $12,000 and $17,500 apiece. [...] [Wired News]
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Sacrificial Lambs
RIAA has first sacrificial lambs for its pursuit of individual file traders. This is where the focus should be, and should have always been (on individuals, not infrastructure providers.) Except the DMCA has removed any need for the RIAA to show just cause or submit to oversight for its actions. Essentially, the DMCA has turned the RIAA into an unregulated, unelected, unaccountable enforcement agency. Your government at work.If there were oversight restrictions in place we could be assured that the RIAA would be forced to concentrate on individuals acting with criminal intent. It would not be possible for them to flood entire networks or castigate entire classes of users. As it stands they can go after anyone they want, any time, without incurring significant cost.
RIAA Suits Against Students May Settle.. RIAA lawsuits brought last month against the four students making and operating network search engines apparently will settle soon. The Daily Princetonian reports that Daniel Peng, and the three others, have been working with attorneys to negotiate an end to this, and expect some kind of announcement today. "It would be really expensive to litigate," said Peng, who has avoided commenting publicly since the filing. "I would like to reach an amicable settlement." In a... [bIPlog]
Terry Frazier at 4:08 PM
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HP Time-limits Ink Cartridges
Tag this one with the Lexmark DMCA case, as a logical attempt to extend control, and hence profits, to the greatest reach legally possible. The problem is the DMCA extends this control well beyond previously legal ends by stopping any form of competition or modification that would bypass any of HP's digital intellectual property. It's only a matter of time before HP joins the DMCA legal chorus to enforce its rights under this new industrial monopoly grant.Whole industries -- aftermarket auto parts, aftermarket printer cartridges, memory chips, manufacturers of any performance mechanical parts, radio and computer hobbyists, and others -- could well be destroyed by a few oligopolies embedding sufficient DigIP into their products to make them immune to any form of competition.
I don't see why it would take anything more than simple RFID embedding to establish a DMCA-qualified barrier to modification. Within a few years companies could be embedding inexpensive RFID tags into every conceivable part, linking them to a DMCA-protected control system that stops operation unless all parts are identified as OEM equipment.
Whose law trumps in such a case -- restraint of trade or DMCA?
theinquirer.net - HP inkjet cartridges have built-in expiry dates.PRINTER GIANT HP has built in time limits for its inkjet printer cartridges which means machines may stop working even if the consumable has 75% ink let to go
[ ... ]
HP has told him that the date printed on the ink cartridge is not the expiry date, and that is determined either by a cartridge being in the printer for 30 months, or the cartridge is 4.5 years old, whichever comes first. [...]
[Privacy Digest]
Terry Frazier at 10:36 AM
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