Recording industry targets companies suspected of music piracy

The Mercury News ^ | Tue, Mar. 18, 2003

[newgeezer]

	Posted on Tue, Mar. 18, 2003
	LOS ANGELES (AP) - Major record labels have targeted about 300 companies whose computers were allegedly used by employees to feed file-swapping networks in the latest attempt to crack down on Internet music piracy. Letters sent out in the last week by the Recording Industry Association of America informed the companies of the alleged piracy and warned that employees and employers might be subjected to ``significant legal damages.'' However, the letters made no explicit threat to sue. The recording association declined to name the companies that received the letters, but said some of them are the same ones who were given warnings in October and February about piracy. About 35 percent of the latest letters went to technology companies, 20 percent to health-care firms, 20 percent to manufacturers and the rest to miscellaneous industries, the RIAA said.

[newgeezer]

So, the RIAA is pursuing the deep pockets of "big business."

[w_over_w]

LOL! Now that I've downloaded over 500 MP3 P2P someone has finally answered the question "How did all these songs originate?" (or maybe I just live in an internet cave).

BTW, both Grokster and BearShare offer a great config. of download software with a vast source of shared music. No more WinMix mixups!

[longtermmemmory]

no, they are just trying to shut down employees who procure a section of a business computer server to share music. Regardless of the RIAA you should not be doing that at work. FR at work well thats another matter.

[Hodar]

In one case, the RIAA found 20,000 songs being offered by 70 employees.

Where am I going wrong? I own 250+ CD's. I have made MP3's from these CD's on my home PC. I burned the MP3's on a series of CD's using a burner I own. I take the MP3's to work, and place them in my home directory, so I may listen to my music while I am in the lab, or in my office. Now, the RIAA wants to sue my employer, because I am using material I paid for?

[Hodar]

Regardless of the RIAA you should not be doing that at work. FR at work well thats another matter.

Both at the same time?

[longtermmemmory]

I believe they object to linking the server to a kazaa like service using the employeers nifty highspeed computer and phone lines.

[jayef]

Who made it your job to tell people what they should be doing at work? Should you be reading the internet at work?

[longtermmemmory]

depends on the computer at work. Better to just have FR.

[longtermmemmory]

Its my company, I am the boss. I pay them for their time. These are my computers. What I choose to do is well, Its good to be the king...

I don't allow instant messengering or ebay either. Internet is only for work related purposes.

[RobRoy]

I use Kazaa at home. My work computer is not the place to touch that issue. If I really want the music, I burn it and bring it to work. 200+ songs per 30 cent disk.

[Paul C. Jesup]

The RIAA should sue itself then for using information from P2P networks (knowing which songs are downloaded and how often those songs are downloaded) for consumer marketing and maximizing their gross net.

[HamiltonJay]

NO, just the easily intimidated corporate america. Its a lot easier to threaten IBM to shut down KAZAA on their network than it is to invidually attemp to intimidate 3 million DSL subscribers.

[newgeezer]

Perhaps you're okay, in their eyes. It doesn't sound like your MP3s are "...being offered...".

[longtermmemmory]

I don't mind listening to music. I do mind employees putting anything on my network. Its a safety security issue. I have no need to deal with preventable virus issues. Its just as easy to make them work on a cd player as a computer.

[Britton J Wingfield]

That's why I use Limerwire at home, then take my MP3s into work on a portable USB hard drive to listen to at my desk.

[longtermmemmory]

Why kind of virus protection would exist?

[Britton J Wingfield]

McAfee on both my home machine and work machine. MP3s dont carry executable code.

I am the guy in charge of antivirus duties for my company, anyway :)

The worst things are those dang e-greeting cards.

[Not_Who_U_Think]

It's amazing what users will do if they can - but I can't imagine a tech company allowing anyone to run a P2P pgm on a business network. If nothing else, I find that about once a month I get something on KaZaa that has a virus infection.

[js1138]

Don't be silly. Unless your CD ROM is shared on the internet and you don't have a firewall, they can't know. They are almost certainly talking about companies where the employees have placed MP3s on public share indexes.

[wolicy_ponk]

Check out this article from last year (Musician Janis Ian argues why the RIAA, despite its claims, is not the noble savior of artists when it fights online file-sharing.)
It convinced me that the RIAA is just spinning its wheels and in effect, trying to kill the goose that can potentially lay the golden egg.
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html