Students facing civil litigation suits brought by the recording industry may have reason to sigh in relief after the organization’s recent announcement that it will be changing its methods of protecting copyrighted material.
The Recording Industry Association of America’s decision could mean good news for UCLA students and administrators who have been dealing with such legal proceedings in one way or another.
“My understanding is that the RIAA has opted to no longer pursue the pre-litigation notice system, or any of their other litigations,” said Kenn Heller, associate director of the UCLA Center for Student Programming.
“What that means, on a positive note to UCLA students, is that they won’t be getting any of those notices, whether they were apprised of it through the university or not.”
The announcement could mean the end of the RIAA’s years-long legal campaign against individuals caught sharing files illegally.
The group said that it will be working with Internet service providers to detect delinquent file-sharers whose internet connection could be interrupted or disconnected entirely if they choose not to comply with warnings and notices.
But the RIAA’s decision changes very little about file-sharing penalties at UCLA.
“(The announcement) doesn’t change very much as far as the current process in place. When the university receives a verifiable complaint from a copyright owner, the university will still respond as it has,” Heller said.
He was also careful to caution that students should not misinterpret this announcement to mean that illegal file-sharing at UCLA is acceptable. He noted that RIAA suits are only a fraction of those handled by the university, but that it now seems that any students who are caught sharing files will not have as much reason to worry about the possibility of being sued.
“From the university standpoint, (illegal file-sharing) is still a breach of federal law. … The university as an Internet provider still has a responsibility to pursue. The federal law has not changed, nor have university policies regarding appropriate use of intellectual property,” Heller said.
Representatives of Time Warner Cable, one of the leading Internet service providers in the Westwood area, were not willing to comment on the company’s plans to cooperate with the RIAA, deferring to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the trade association which represents the cable industry.
“Cable company service contracts generally include prohibitions on the use of broadband service for unlawful activities, including piracy,” said NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz in an e-mailed statement. “We look forward to working constructively with the recording industry and other content providers on fair and effective ways to deter copyright infringement.”
Representatives from the RIAA were not willing to comment on the organization’s plans.
They confirmed that the RIAA will continue to notify Internet service providers with Digital Millennium Copyright Act letters when clients are sharing files illegally. Pre-lawsuit notifications will no longer be sent.
“We had no option but self-help, and we stepped up in order to allow the digital marketplace to get the oxygen it needed to take off,” said RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol in an e-mailed statement regarding the organization’s initial practice of filing mass lawsuits against end users.
Bainwol said that legal downloading has become a successful replacement for physical sales and said that revenues reflect a growing trend in the public toward legal use of copyrighted material.
While the specifics of the RIAA’s plans to work with Internet service providers will be determined in ongoing negotiations, Bainwol noted the growing willingness of Internet service providers to protect the integrity of legal Web commerce.
“The interests of content and ISPs are converging,” he said. “We both want to see a digital marketplace uncompromised by network hogs, spammers and con artists.”