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University snubs RIAA

Trevor Watt

Top Marks! 

It is about time that someone stood up to the bullying tactics of the RIAA, the University's duty is firstly to the students, secondly the tax payer who's $ funds them. The RIAA earn their living by these actions, so make them earn it.

Colin Jackson

Screw 'em 

About time somebody told the MAFIAA where to get off.

Anonymous Coward

They made this problem for themselves ... 

Had an interesting conversation some time ago with someone from a local uni. They had been advised to monitor the network and block suspect traffic - but the response tothis was for the P2P software to encrypt it's traffic.

Now it's illegal to try and decrypt this traffic, even if it were feasible, and os the Uni gets off the hook as all it can see is encrypted traffic which may well be legitimate and so cannot be fairly blocked !

Murray Pearson

Go, Huskers! 

Right on, U of N. IU hope you get your 11 grand from those bastiches. :-)

Andrew Marlow

Can the Uni get them via the DMCA? 

I wonder if there is any way the Uni can encrypt the content so that to do decrypt it would be illegal under the DMCA. You can buy routers that do automatic encryption. I suppose the Uni would also need to assert that somehow they held the copyright on the encrypted data. Hmm, there must be some mileage in this. It would be sooo good to get the RIAA hung on its own crappy laws!

Graham Dawson

I'm no lawyer... 

... but, as I understand the provisions of the DMCA, the University is acting entirely within its obligations. The DMCA provides copyright holders with the benefit of the doubt in exchange for them doing the leg-work, which means it's up to the RIAA to provide proof of wrongdoing, *not* the university.

Henry Herron

Great Job. 

I'm glad to see that someone is bending over to the RIAA. If there is proof of wrong doing, that is one thing, but to assume guilt is another. I understand the RIAAs point of view, but their tactics are very questionable if not illegal.

Anywhere you go, if you request information, regardless of what you intend to do with it, provided you are entitled to said information, there will probably be a processing or transaction fee. Nobody works for free. Isn't this the reason behind the suits in the first place?