W&M must name students suspected of sharing music

"It never sat right with me and I have used iTunes for the past couple of years. Cheaper than buying a "real" CD and saves gas. :-)."

The music quality that is purchased for the majority of Itunes music is inferior. If you have spent money buying 128KBPS downloads in an ACC format you got robbed. ACC is junk. Plus, if you try to convert it to another format it degrades even worse. Eventually, once start to realize how dull the sound is compared to standard CD's or a 320KBPS MP3 your going to be angry. Nevermind the fact that you have a private company keeping you off of other types of equipment. Once you do the analog conversion the sound is still bad. Millions of dollars have been spent on music that will have to be replaced.

Now to the real question: Several albums I have obtained through different downloads I already owned at one time on tape or records. So if I am buying an intellectual property; shoul

Rose, President Bush got rid of the requirement for a court order to tap phone calls, the gov't can do what ever they want. They use a system called CALEA that is installed at all land line and cell phone switch offices to easily monitor conversations. The RIAA almost always settles out of court with the kids. They shake them down for money. The RIAA most likely, like the BSA (Business Software Alliance) only represents the powerhouse record labels. If a small time guy was getting his stuff pirated the RIAA wouldn't care, but the record labels have lots of money invested in getting kids to get their parents to buy Brittney Spears albums, so that matters to them. Old models don't work, the product isn't worth as much as it once was. Remember the CD antitrust case, where the record labels were found guilty?

A reminder from the Recoding Industry of America.

Thank you to the courts and W & M for keeping our way of life safe!

In this case, the stufents are using State owned property (university computer network), paid for by the taxpayers. There is no right to privacy when you use government property for illegal purposes, and anyone who thinks that is too stupid to be in college anyway. When you download using p2p software, you are, by definition, opening your files up to anyone who wants to look...including the RIAA. Argue all you want...there is no legal or moral justification for theft.

A subpoena is not spying but the most essential part of the court system. A decision should be decided on all the facts and not on who is best at hiding the facts. If your evidence that you did nothing wrong that you can subpoena from anyone is better than the RIAA which can do the same, then you will win the case.

We have laws that are being used to stop the government from hearing the content of a telephone call to or from know or suspected terrorist. Yet here we have a private company being allowed to SPY on another electronic media form and force people to turn over id's and private information. As far as the recording artist they listed off. Phil Collins, Coldplay and Britney Spears, let's get serious, aren't these people kind of washed up or has beens? Phil Collins is a nice OLD guy, I don't know who Coldplay is (I'm old) and Spears is some overweight bald psycho that can't drive. How about listing the recording companies and artist that are members of the Recording Industry Association of America. I wonder if the kids they are going after even downloaded any music from the people they claim to represent. As many CDs that I have that only have one or two songs worth listening to, I'd say the industry has probably robbed the paying customers more that the kids downloading music. The other thing I question is the IP addresses. Aren't most networks on DHCP? That being said, the IP address is a temp lease and not assigned to a given machine.

This entire baloney about the RIAA's continual campaign to charge people for downloading music is going waay too far. I buy music all the time from Yahoo!, and whats next? the RIAA will infor me that you cant have that cause I PAID for it and its against our laws?
The point is, there are some hard to find tracks out there and some are so out of date that the only choice is to download it.
And the RIAA should not have the power to break into people's computers. Its still breaking and entering into personal property and they are committing a crime in itself.

Wow this country Amazes me everyday. We are "cracking" down on kids in college downloading music off the internet when we have much more serious things to crack down on. Give me a break, I bet you 75% of Americans own or have downloaded music that they didn't pay for. SO WHO CARES!!! The only ones who are cracking down on this are the older folks who don't know how to use the computer and the TOO RICH HOLLYWOOD STARS!!!

As far as I'm concerned if I own the CD, or the cassette tape, or album I have a legal right to download it if I'm feeling lazy. My cassette deck is in storage, and I don't own turntables yet. Some of the music I listen to isn't distributed normally. But I'll be honest, almost all the CDs I buy these days are from small time artists. My issue is that they are shaking down the students for the possibility of other people's crimes. Radio stations are perfectly legal in getting music from p2p networks for airplay. People who own the songs are committing no crime. The funny thing is, now you can get used CDs so cheap because everyone rips them into that terrible piece of software called iTunes and sells the CDs. And I know lots of people that copy their CDs for use in car, so when they are stolen or damaged they loose nothing. And if you really want to download with zero risk, it's called USENET kids. They should study history.

well of course it may not be right,but here is a scenario,have any of ya's gone to a concert and have it be the worst show you ever seen,and thought about getting a refund.i did. it was that freak of freaks, marilyn manson at the norva,now i would never buy any of his music,but i had to go just to see what the rave was about.i've seen all the freaks kiss,alice cooper,danzig,gwar etc, etc.and to tell you the truth it was the worst show i have ever been to in my life, well would have i gotten a refund,no hey but thanks for your money sincercly marilyn manson.trust me i love my cd collection,i buy it for the liner notes,the art work and to support my favorites,i would never! boot leg a ryan adams, paul westerberg.replacements,wilco,lucinda williams,and any other of my near and dears.but screw it,if i can get maybe one song from that hack brittney spears,that i just might like for two weeksfor free ,there is no way in the world i'd even spend 99 cents for it on itunes.

The college kids are easy pickins...They are on a dedicated network that can be closely monitored...They more than likely have the money or at least their parents do..What better person to go after.

I know a great deal of people that use LimeWire and such programs to obtain music, movies etc. I have even downloaded a few myself.

This story definitly got some attention and will likely change the way a bunch of folks look at this issue. So for the music folks its a win/win situation, they put out a little bit of effort to track some folks down and recieved a hand full of cash in return and also recieved the bonus of reducing future thefts.

Will I ever DOWNLOAD music again? Most likely....
Will I ever SHARE music again? doubt it....

doesn't make it right, does it? Sure, we all used to use tapes and record stuff off the radio. But each time that song plays on the radio, the artist is making money. Each time you download a free song illegally, the artist and all their recording execs don't make squat. Of course, there are people out there who don't want to make the rich richer - whatever. Doesn't make it right to steal their work. We could keep saying the same thing everyday. And, I don't know about you, but when I saved up my allowance to buy a record back in the day, those leeches who would always ask you to "burn" a copy got on my nerves. It was always the same friend. I have quite the collection of CDs and I don't recall making a copy for anyone. So, no not everyone is stealing stuff. In fact, I remember a supervisor at a company that I worked for would refuse to play "home made" CDs at work because of his Christian values. If it wasn't the original CD, he wouldn't play it. Some people are actually honest in this world still. Deveau, whereever you are, I remember that!

here is easy one for all of those who thinks it's stealing,now raise your hand,and tell me,how many of you folks sat by your radio,waiting for your favorite song,and then, hit the record button,on your cassette recorder,or got that new album and burnt a copy for your friend,on to your cassette player?uh is that stealing?yes.but i'm sure a lot of you all did it.i did!poor lars ulrich,of mettalica, "there stealing our music"! oh and you did'nt do it lars?good grief!silly thing is those students at W@M.there just scape goats and being used to curb the use of "unlawful trading". there is no way possible way on gods green earth the music police can catch everyone nor will they even try!plain and simple scare tactic,make a bust once in a while and hope to slow it down.thats it.now if you will excuse me i have some blank cd's to burn,for my friends

Whatever happened to University Honor Codes? Students should be expelled for using university assets for illegal purposes. This theft...no other word for it. Try to find a job with that on your transcript. Is it worth it?

"Whether you tuck the cd under your coat or download without paying for it's stealing all the same. Deal with that."

I completely agree, make no mistake. But when was the last time ANYONE was fined $5,000 for sticking a CD in their coat at walmart?

All you kids out there who think they'll never find you...THINK AGAIN! Go ahead...steal music in Starbucks. No one will know...

Not that it matters really, because stealing but the programs do have settings that you can set that prevent you from sharing. It is an option...at least on the couple of programs I have seen. It never sat right with me and I have used iTunes for the past couple of years. Cheaper than buying a "real" CD and saves gas. :-). Do I like giving money to people like Britney Spears who clearly overspend and do whatever with their wealth? Not really, but I'm also not a thief either. I had seen a program at my cousin's house and she also has gotten several viruses downloaded onto her computer but, well, you get what you have comin'.

Whether you tuck the cd under your coat or download without paying for it's stealing all the same. Deal with that.

When I was in college they had big signs on the copy machines about how copying other people's creative work was unethical. Now they want to block copyright holder's civil rights to have their claims heard in court? Get all the facts on the table and then let the student's argue in court why what they were doing was not infringing on someone else's rights. That's how the system is supposed to work.

Just download on an open network, at starbucks or Panera bread. Then they cannot track you. It's sad that the RIAA need to bring lawsuit to the common folk who, if anything, are helping these OVERPAID artists. The more people who down their songs, the more times their song is overheard on a car radio or stereo, and the more likely people would buy their CDs or go to their concerts.

The students aren't being harassed over actually downloading the content. The issue is that many of the programs automatically share out the data to other people on the file sharing network. This is the only issue the RIAA seems to be able to go after. Evidentially there is no way for them to go after you for downloading the content, perhaps damages are too little. The record industry is clinging onto it's old models and mega bucks, but there is nothing they can do to save the old way. Their product is worth much less now, and they need to deal with it. Sell new CDs for $5 or less each, for new releases. People who have to spend earnings equivalent of 4 hours of work to buy an album aren't going to feel piracy pity after seeing some star's life of excess on cribs and destructive personal habits all over the news.