RIAA to MIT student "Drop out of school so you can get a job and pay us your fines"

[Lint]

RIAA Rep Encourages Downloader To Drop Out Of College To Settle Suit

04.11.2006 3:31 PM EDT

Alleged illegal downloader trying to raise money to pay $3,750 settlement instead.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Like many of the thousands of other people who've been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for allegedly downloading music illegally, 20-year-old Cassi Hunt is in no position to pay off thousands of dollars in fines.

But the

advice a RIAA representative gave the sophomore physics major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology didn't really sound reasonable: Drop out and get a job or switch to a cheaper community college.

Hunt said she first learned she was being sued around Christmas ("that was a great time"), but her school graciously stalled on giving her the notice until January.

"But you can't delay the inevitable," said Hunt, who would not comment on whether or not she had illegally downloaded the copywritten material the RIAA is claiming. "I got a letter from a law firm in Colorado saying I was going to be named in a lawsuit and offering me an opportunity to settle." After calling the RIAA hotline and the settlement hotline and getting recorded messages for both, Hunt waited for someone to call her back.

When someone did call Hunt back a short time later, she told Hunt she was accused of stealing 272 songs but that she could settle the case for $3,750. Surely if she's going to such a high-end university, she had the money to pay off that much, right?

"Oh, God, no," she laughed. "I make maybe $5,000 a year, which puts me $4,000 in debt."

Hunt said in addition to taking out huge loans to cover her $42,000 in annual college costs, she works three jobs as an alumni-fundraising booster, grading papers and doing research assistance.

"I talked to [the RIAA rep] and said, 'Let's negotiate this amount,' and she said it was not negotiable," Hunt said. "So we got on the topic of what happens if people have unusual circumstances, like medical conditions, do they make allowances for that? Or for students who have major expenses? She said, 'No, the RIAA doesn't care about that, it doesn't matter.' When I asked her what I should do, she said that in the past the RIAA has encouraged students to either drop out of college or attend community college so they can get a job and pay off their debt. I was flabbergasted. I started laughing at her and said, 'You cannot be serious!' " Turns out she was.

The RIAA has filed lawsuits against more than 18,000 individuals since September 2003, with more than 4,300 settlements to date, according to a spokesperson, who would not comment on Hunt's claims.

Instead the RIAA spokesperson referred to a previously issued statement reading: "Our goal with all these anti-piracy efforts is to protect the ability of the music industry to invest in new bands and give legal online services a chance to flourish. As part of achieving that goal, we bring lawsuits against individuals who violate the law and steal from record companies, musicians, songwriters and everyone else involved in making music. It is not our position to tell individuals how to pay for the settlements that may follow. It is our role to enforce our rights under U.S. copyright law."

At this point Hunt said she cannot afford to go to court — where, if she loses, she will have to pay the RIAA's legal bills as well — and is trying to figure out how to raise the money to pay the fine. She said her parents are in no position to help out, so one way she's trying is by begging for it on her new Web site, ScrewPirates.com, where she is chronicling her battle with the RIAA. "I'll try several things at school to raise money," she said. "A Texas Hold 'Em tournament, bake sales, raffles."

If you're not in the neighborhood, Hunt suggests checking out the ScrewPirates official store, where she's selling mugs, teddy bears, boxer shorts, thongs, hoodies and baseball shirts.

Seriously..isn't this like illegal or something? Isn't using scare tactics to get money from people extortion?

[Quasar]

It also violates the Constitution as they searched her computer without a search warrant, thus meaning that they obtained the evidence illegally. Illegally gathered evidence cannot be used in court against someone. This evidence was gathered illegally as the party who searched computer didn't have a search warrant. Therefore, this case should be null and void.

[YI]

hahahahahaaa....C. Hunt.....that is all.

[himmelfarht]

Fuck the RIAA

[Pepsi]

I bought a teddy bear.

[Toe]

Seriously, the RIAA have no soul. You couldn't work out some sort of payment plan or something? No - you tell the girl to drop out of MIT. Now, she may have stolen music, but the RIAA are coming out as the crooks. Why would I want to feed an industry that does that kind of thing?

[SeanDMan]

The RIAA's position is so full of holes, they need to resort to scare tactics.

If someone with a half decent lawyer took it to court the RIAA would fall flat.

[Pepsi]

The RIAA's position is so full of holes, they need to resort to scare tactics.

If someone with a half decent lawyer took it to court the RIAA would fall flat.

[Guest muddatrucker]

I can afford CDs, I still download all my music.

[SeanDMan]

I can afford a good lawyer, I still download music.

[Lowerdeck]

Yeah, I just switched over to iTunes. The RIAA are scum of the earth who need their headquarters suicide bombed. But, I don't want to deal with them myself.

Someone should tell this girl that extortion and illegal search procedures can get her off the hook. Too bad she can't afford going to trial.

[Hugar Twriker Eats Spam]

But if she downloaded the music through MIT's internet, doesn't MIT have the okay to let them search what was download through their internet.

[Lowerdeck]

If MIT refuses, RIAA can just sue them and the courts will make MIT let them do it.

[magell]

She has to pay $3,000 or so for less than 300 songs? That's fucked up. That's horrible advice as well. I would also reccomend that somebody drop out of college and get a job that pays next to nothing and that they will barely be able to live on in order to pay off huge debt.

[Lint]

there used to be some site that had a calculator. You entered the number of MP3's you had, and it would say what your fine would be by the RIAA. I owed something like 35.4 million dollars. Of course, that factors in songs I've legally ripped to my computer, which technically since their on my PC for my personal use, not on a P2P network being shared, I am allowed to do. Also, have a few songs by local bands that wouldn't be covered by RIAA suits, and my friends band whom I have permission to share on P2P networks to get out word about their group.

The RIAA is getting out of hand. The US Government should step in and investigate the RIAA for their handling of the situation. Of course, since the RIAA doesn't have any with the words "Osama", "terrorist", "Iraq", "Iran" or "nuclear" in their title, the government couldn't give a rats ass about it

[SeanDMan]

The RIAA is getting out of hand. The US Government should step in and investigate the RIAA for their handling of the situation.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Good show.

[Lint]

The RIAA is getting out of hand. The US Government should step in and investigate the RIAA for their handling of the situation.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Good show.

Hey, if ya read down father I said I knew it'd never happen. With how much the RIAA probably donates to politicians and political parties....

[zero]

Of course, since the RIAA doesn't have any with the words "Osama", "terrorist", "Iraq", "Iran" or "nuclear" in their title, the government couldn't give a rats ass about it

You make it sound like the government cares about those things you listed...

Anyway, there's nothing to investigate, except maybe what is the purpose of having an RIAA to begin with? The one thing that does bug me though, is the RIAA imposing these fines when they have no legal right to do so. I realize it's simply them offering a settlement, but if it's such a crime, shouldn't the FBI be the ones going after "pirates?"

Edited April 19, 2006 by Zero

[oldskool]

Yeah, I just switched over to iTunes. The RIAA are scum of the earth who need their headquarters suicide bombed. But, I don't want to deal with them myself.

Someone should tell this girl that extortion and illegal search procedures can get her off the hook. Too bad she can't afford going to trial.

[Lint]

the latest in the RIAA's insanity...

RIAA Sues Family Without A Computer

By Newsferatu, Writer

Sunday, April 23, 2006 @ 8:38 PM

No Internet Service, Either

- advertisement -

From the Rockmart Journal:

A Rockmart, GA family is being sued for illegal music file sharing, despite the fact that they don’t even own a computer.

A federal lawsuit filed this week in Rome by the Recording Industry Association of America alleges that Carma Walls, of 117 Morgan St., Rockmart, has infringed on copyrights for recorded music by sharing files over the Internet. The lawsuit seeks an injunction and requests unspecified monetary damages.

The lawsuit states, “Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant, without the permission or consent of Plaintiffs, has used, and continues to use, an online media distribution system to download the copyrighted recordings, to distribute the copyrighted recordings to the public, and/or to make the copyrighted recordings available for distribution to others.”

This came as shocking news to the Walls family, who were notified of the lawsuit Friday afternoon by a newspaper reporter. James Walls, speaking on behalf of his wife and family, said they have not been served with legal papers and were unaware of the lawsuit.

After being shown a copy of the court filing, Walls said he found the whole thing bewildering.

“I don’t understand this,” Walls said. “How can they sue us when we don’t even have a computer?”

Walls also noted that his family has only resided at their current address “for less than a year.” He wondered if a prior tenant of the home had Internet access, then moved, leaving his family to be targeted instead.

However, the RIAA’s lawsuit maintains that Carma Walls, through the use of a file-sharing program, has infringed on the copyrights for the following songs: “Who Will Save Your Soul,” Jewel; “Far Behind,” Candlebox; “Still the Same,” Bob Seger; “I Won’t Forget You,” Poison; “Open Arms,” Journey; “Unpretty,” TLC; No Scrubs,” TLC; and “Saving All My Love for You,” Whitney Houston.

The lawsuit follows similar wording as in some 3,500 other lawsuits filed by the RIAA in the United States since June 2003.

Typically, the lawsuits have targeted users of Kazaa, Grokster and other peer-to-peer Internet services – most of which have since been shut down by RIAA lawsuits. With these services, users typically have an open folder on the computer that allows other users of the service access to any songs that have been saved in a digital format, such as MP3 files.

The RIAA lawsuits have come under fire, with critics calling the effort a “scare tactic” meant to intimidate the public from file sharing activities.

However, in a public statement defending the litigation, the RIAA says its efforts have been effective in dissuading illegal activity.

“The industry’s anti-piracy efforts have deterred a sizeable number of would-be illegal downloaders,” the RIAA statement reads. “Although a significant online problem undoubtedly persists, particularly with hard-core, frequent peer-to-peer users, absent action by the industry, the illegal down-loading world would be exponentially worse.”

Not much more to say about that