Law Vibe

From p2pnet:

"Is there anything better than sitting down during your late teens and early twenties and learning about file sharing from a fat man named Mitch …?" - wonders John Biggs on CrunchGear.

"Mitch" is Mitch Bainwol, spinster-in-chief for the Big 4 Organized Music cartel’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

What has Biggs all riled up is the Big 4 Organized Music cartel’s latest attack on American teaching institutions.

"It’s something we feel we have to do," says RIAA president Carey Sherman, wiping a crocodile tear from his rheumy eye.

Ohio says it has RIAA Top Ranking for having received the most warnings. But it’s far from being alone.

"It seems that the RIAA is sending out thousands of complaints to universities across the country and the universities are reacting just as bastions of freedom and free inquiry should - by chiding and even suspending students for sharing music," says CrunchGear.

"One college even makes its students watch an anti-piracy film created by the RIAA."

Might that be the infamous Campus Downloading video, perchance, the one with Penn State president Graham Spanier in a cameo role?

"It breaks down like this," continues Briggs. "The RIAA can’t attack the Euro/Asian pirate networks. They get a bad rap from suing 12-year-olds. So why not attack disenfranchised college students without the smarts to use Bit-torrent?"

He adds:

"This makes me extremely upset. That the schools would trust the word of an organization that is waging a war against creative expression is outrageous. Say what you want about artists rights, DRM, and piracy, but this is an effort to prop up a quickly eroding regime and preventing improvements in copyright laws that allow a few rich lobbyists get to keep the their cash cow alive.

"Colleges - let your students deal with the RIAA, sans your involvement. It makes you look like asses."