The Etownian >> News
Music pirates incur organized crackdown
Thursday December 04 2008
Piracy is alive and well both on the high seas and here at Elizabethtown College. Recently, three individuals were caught distributing copyrighted material — namely movies. Since the College provides Internet access for the students and faculty, any illegal file sharing ultimately falls under the responsibility of the College. The three offenders will be charged $50 as part of the College’s policy toward those who illegally download protected material. However, this puts the College in a compromising position, as organizations like the RIAA or the MPAA can force Etown to turn over the names of any people who have been pirating material, lest the College face a lawsuit of its own. The pirates can be sued for a fee of up to $150,000. This situation has some students in a state of uproar, as they feel as though they have been singled out.
“I think the amounts that they fine people for are ridiculous,” junior Suzanne Harris said.
It is true that being charged $150,000 for a three minute piece of music seems to be a little on the side of overkill, but the RIAA finds this justified because they need to cover profit losses for the companies and artists they represent. Despite this, the attempts of the RIAA and other organizations to sue people for sharing things like songs and movies haven’t been met with much success. Most people sued by the RIAA opt to settle out of court. However, a very good portion of the people who decide to fight the accusations are exonerated. The tactics used by these organizations are simply not good enough to convince judges that accused law-breakers should pay the $150,000 fine.
Despite all this, students at Etown can still get into trouble with the College if they are repeatedly caught sharing files like movies or songs. It is therefore highly advisable that students avoid file sharing programs like Limewire and Kazaa, if only to dodge Etown’s disciplinary measures. There are plenty of wonderful alternative ways to get music and movies for free that are perfectly legal. First of all, both the High Library and the public library have a huge collection of movies that can be rented for free. Public library membership is also without cost, as are the services of the High Library.
Things get even better on the music front, as there are a plethora of Web sites that offer access to huge libraries of free music for people’s listening pleasure. Chief among these services is Pandora Radio (http://www.pandora.com). This site asks for a song or band the user likes, then automatically creates an endless playlist of songs that it finds to be similar to that song or artist. The service is completely free and a great way to discover new music.
Additionally, blogs like the Hype Machine post new music and rare tracks every single day that people can listen to for free. Also, sites exclusively for college students, such as Ruckus, permit users to create an account. Subsequently, users are allowed to download huge amounts of music for free. The only requirement is a valid school email address.
All in all, illegal downloading puts the College in a very bad position, but there are plenty of ways to avoid it.
The Etownian >> News