Contributed by: filbert Friday, March 09 2007 @ 08:59 AM CST
The Recording Industry Association of America is demanding that 50 students at Ohio University pay $3,000 each[*1] to the industry group to avoid being sued for illegal downloading.
A letter to one Ohio University student told her that she distributed 787 audio files, putting her total minimum potential liability at more than $590,000. The minimum damages under the law is $750 for each copyright recording that had been shared, the letter said.
This is a big reason I simply don’t buy music any more. I don’t care to support an industry that uses strongarm tactics, even when the shakedown is in the form of a letter from a lawyer. The current intellectual properties legal system is broken. Extracting thousands of dollars from college students won’t fix it.