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Syracuse: RIAA stops filing music piracy claims(U-Wire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) UWIRE-01/22/2009-Syracuse: RIAA stops filing music piracy claims (C) 2008 Daily Orange via UWIRE By Ashley Collman, Daily Orange (Syracuse) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Recording Industry Association of America announced last month it would stop pursuing legal action against individuals for music piracy. The decision comes after critics' complaints that the lawsuits did little to curb illegal downloading. Thirty-seven Syracuse University students were cautioned to stop pirating music in 2007 and threatened with thousands of dollars in fines in court or had to pay a $3,000 settlement. The RIAA will now depend on the cooperation of major Internet service providers to combat the issue of music piracy. Depending on what ISPs and the RIAA decide, music infringement may result in action by the ISP, including a warning e-mail, slower Internet service or Internet discontinuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The RIAA still reserves the right to prosecute piracy cases already in progress. The university has a three-strike policy for offenders. Information Technology and Services first notifies students of the discrepancy and warns them to stop. If the piracy continues, ITS sets up a counseling session for the student. The third strike results in a meeting with the Office of Judicial Affairs, said Chris Croad, director of Information Technology Services. Croad said it was never the university but the RIAA that looked for individuals committing music piracy. "That would be too big of a job," he said. "We don't police the network for people using copyright material. Up until recently, the RIAA would look for that sort of traffic and let us know if they found that kind of activity." Croad said the only way to know where the activity is coming from is when the RIAA provides them the IP address, at which point the university traces that to the machine of a student, staff or faculty member. The RIAA ending lawsuits against individuals could spell a larger trend in the music industry. Apple's iTunes store, a digital media vendor, is also coming up with less restrictive methods to deal with music sharing. It started offering digital rights management free content, or songs that can be copied and shared, on Jan. 6, according to the iTunes Web site. ##30## ((Distributed on bahalf of U-Wire via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((U-Wire - http://www.uwire.com)) Copyright ? 2009 U-Wire |