Who’s the rat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ipso photo|by-nc-nd

As previously reported, students from the University of Michigan are caught in a cold sweat, waiting for the RIAA to come a-knockin’ at their door. The RIAA has already issued pre-litigation statements to several universities thoughout the U.S., hoping to entice administration officials to hand over infringing users, thus circumventing the legal process. However, The University of Wisconsin says they won’t become a shill for the RIAA.

Brian Rust of UW’s IT department: “These settlement letters are an attempt to
short circuit the legal process to rely on universities to be their legal agent.”

EFF FAQ on pre-lawsuit letters

Viacom bites that hand that feeds it

Viacom has sued Google for copyright infringements on YouTube.

Damages sought: $1 billion.

Check out what Free Culture friend Siva Vaidhyanathan has to say about it on WNYCs “On the Media.”

“Now, we haven’t heard a lot from Jon Stewart in the last few months as Viacom’s taken these very aggressive stance toward Google and YouTube, but I’d be willing to bet that the folks who really understand how fans build upon the work of The Daily Show, they understand that having stuff up on YouTube is priceless. Being kind to your fans by giving them content that they can use and reuse and sometimes even abuse is never a bad business strategy.”