Rockbites: Recording Industry targets individual Napster user

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September 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Recording Industry targets individual Napster user
20 September 2000

Oklahoma State University campus police, responding to allegations from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) regarding possible copyright infringement, seized the computer and CD recorder along with associated equipment of a 19 year old student on 5 September. The student has not yet been arrested.
    Lt. David Altman of the OSU police said “If crimes are confirmed then we decide whether to file the case as a misdemeanor or as a felony, or turn it over to the Payne County District Attorney to file....” Felony charges could be made even though the student did not profit from his activities.
    OSU assistant director of Computer Information Services and head of Technical Services James Alexander said “It was 40 gigabytes, which probably represents 1,000 albums... That’s like 6,600 songs.” Alexander confirmed that the RIAA contacted the university in August “...by fax and by email that there was an individual on campus distributing copyrighted material” using a university hosted Web site. Locating the student once they’d received the RIAA’s request took just five minutes. OSU is compelled to stop suspected copyright violation by its students lest it be open to a lawsuit by the RIAA.
    University spokesman Nestor Gonzales said the files in question were downloaded from the Internet using Napster, among other tools.
    While not widely publicized, copyright infringement probes involving the police on US campuses are not unusual. Alexander said “We have serious offenses about three a semester where the police get involved.” But before this such incidents at OSU were not instigated by the RIAA. | BBC story | | OSU student paper story | | OSU warning to students | | RIAA Soundbyting site | | RIAA legal page | | top of page |

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