Re: RIAA Moves Against College-Network Fileswapping

[Dan Updegrove <updegrove () MAIL UTEXAS EDU>]

Colleagues,

Although I'm not an attorney, I try whenever possible to read the original
legal documents. In this case, I commend to you,

* Complaint against Peng (Princeton) --
http//news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/riaa/arcopeng40303njcmp.pdf
* Complaint against Nievelt (Mich Tech) --
http//news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/riaa/arconievelt40303micmp.pdf
* Complaint against Sherman (RPI) --
http//news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/riaa/arcosherman40303nycmp.pdf
* Complaint against Jordan (RPI) --
http//news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/riaa/arcojordan40303cmp.pdf

The four suits are all variations on a common template, with identical
language in the first two sections (retyped below).


4/3/2003, Complaint for direct & contributory copyright infringement

NATURE OF THE ACTION

1. This is an action for direct and contributory copyright infringement
arising out of the knowing and willful conduct of the Defendant. Defendant
has hijacked an academic computer network and installed on it a marketplace
for copyright piracy that is used by others to copy and distribute music
illegally. In addition to operating this piracy marketplace that
facilitates direct copyright infringement by others, Defendant is
committing direct copyright infringement himself by copying and
distributing hundreds of sound recordings over his system without the
authorization of the copyright owners.

2. Defendant has established, maintains, and controls a self-contained
system that uses the resources of the RPI computer network and is
accessible to all of the users of the University network. This system
operates similarly to the Napster system, which was shut down by a federal
court injunction due to its blatant facilitation of copyright infringement.
Thus, Defendant has taken a network created for higher learning and
academic pursuits and converted it into an emporium of music piracy where
copyright infringement is simplified down to the click of a mouse. Like
Napster, Defendant's system provides users of the University network with
infrastructure and facilities for committing copyright infringement. Those
facilities include access to a central computer server, a continuously
updated index of infringing recordings available on Defendant's own system,
and a method that facilitates the rapid and efficient copying and
distribution of those recordings. Users connect to the computer server
operated by Defendant at the Internet site,

        "www.chewplastic.com,"          <Jesse Jordan, RPI>
        "www.flatlan.com,"              <Aaron Sherman, RPI>
        "wake.princeton.edu,"           <Daniel Peng, Princeton>
        "www.mtu.flatlan.com,"          <Joseph Nievelt, Michigan Tech U>

to search for, locate, and make copies of Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound
recordings that are being made available by other users of the network;
those copies then are distributed further for copying by other users, all
without the authorization of the copyright owners.


Interesting data from DNS lookups: three of the four students had
registered .COM services on their dorm machines. (Would be interesting to
know whose home in the Albany, NY area houses the RoadRunner cable
modem-based server for www.flatlan.com.)

www.chewplastic.com     128.113.199.75          jordaj.stu.rpi.edu
www.flatlan.com 24.195.226.127          alb-24-195-226-127.nycap.rr.com
rpi.flatlan.com         128.113.158.135 sherma2.stu.rpi.edu
wake.princeton.edu      140.180.156.177 dpeng.student.Princeton.EDU
www.mtu.flatlan.com     141.219.76.190          picho.resnet.mtu.edu

Reading the complaints and poking around websites via Google indicate that
these students were remarkably brazen in their activities, with Sherman,
for one, apparently offering his file sharing software for sale via his
.COM site on his dorm computer. The complaint indicates that RIAA even
purchased it!

Regards,
Dan


VP  for Information Technology          Phone (512) 232-9610
The University of Texas at Austin       Fax (512) 232-9607
FAC 248 (Mail code: G9800)              d.updegrove () its utexas edu
P.O. Box 7407                                   http://wnt.utexas.edu/~danu/

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