RIAA Gets Tennessee Law To Force Universities To Filter Networks For Copyrighted Content

from the the-riaa-never-sleeps dept

After more than a decade of watching the entertainment industry (mainly the RIAA and the MPAA), one thing I’ve learned is that the organization never gives up in pushing its legislative agenda. If there’s a setback in one area, you can be sure that others from the organization are eagerly pushing the exact same rules through some other angle. The typical MO is that they try to get federal legislation passed in their favor. However, if that fails, they switch to the fallback plans which involve international treaties and state laws. Both of these are great because they tend to get a lot less scrutiny. State laws are a bit of a pain, because you have to get a few of them approved to create the “groundswell” that makes other states jump on board, but changes to state laws can often pass through under the radar.

That appears to be what’s happening in the effort to force universities to install filters monitoring their networks for any unauthorized transmissions. You may recall that the RIAA pushed strongly to get Congress to pass laws requiring filters. Basically, the entertainment industry first flat-out lied (yes, lied) about how big a problem file sharing on campus was, and that got some Congressional Reps (with plenty of campaign contributions from the entertainment industry) to introduce legislation punishing universities if they didn’t filter their networks. Widespread outcry against that legislation helped water it down, but it appears the industry just moved on to state legislatures.

The RIAA is now celebrating the fact that Tennessee has passed legislation that requires universities to install filters if they’ve received at least 50 DMCA requests. Considering the massive number of DMCA notices that the RIAA has been known to file, this is hardly a large hurdle. The law will cost Tennessee taxpayers nearly $10 million in the first year, and another $1.5 million each year — based on the state’s own estimates. And for what? To put in filters that won’t work, just to try to prop up an obsolete business model from legacy players in an industry that needs to learn how to adapt to the market?

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Companies: mpaa, riaa

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Comments on “RIAA Gets Tennessee Law To Force Universities To Filter Networks For Copyrighted Content”

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30 Comments
Relonar says:

ssh tunneling / sftp :: problem solved (on pirate side)

for everyone else…oh right they get screwed as usual
bad laws get passed
innocents get sued/expelled/bankrupted
universities pay for upkeep and installation of filters
network expansion is restricted by the use of such filters
riaa still doesn’t make more from sales
riaa still doesn’t ‘lose’ less from piracy
piracy doesn’t go down

Killer_Tofu (profile) says:

Re: RIAA

If you do not know what their agenda is by now, you must have been living under a rock for the last 10 years.
Please google ‘RIAA’ and it is all over the net how much they hate their customers. They are driven by one thing and one thing only, money. And they will extract it any way they possibly can. Including getting legislators at any level to pass laws where it sues public funds to enforce their private agenda.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Tennessee

RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Bainwol, along with several other members of the music community, recently celebrated Country Music Association Day in Nashville by participating in a ceremonial signing of college campus anti-piracy legislation by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9845/Tennessee+Governor+Signs+Campus+Piracy+Bill+into+Law/

Anonymous Coward says:

One thing that might help limit legislation is for the sons and daughters of Government officials to be outed. Then the RIAA would have to explain why they are doing selective enforcement. Image the closing arguments at a jury trial where the defense explains how RIAA only goes after people that are not part of the Goverment that passes the laws they and their families do not have to obey.

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