arstechnica.com — How well is the RIAA doing when it comes to extracting settlements from college students in its "college deterrence campaign?" Quite well, at least at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. That doesn't make it a success, though.
Jan 30, 2008 View in Crawl 4
mydarnsnakelegsJan 31, 2008
As a grad student at UTK I'd tell folk not to come to this university. We call it the "Big Orange Screw." It's everywhere. It might interest some folks to know that the university president is in hot water with the faculty over IT issues like this one.
Closed AccountJan 31, 2008
The UTK network is not very secure by any stretch. I know several people directly who work in various IT depts for UTK and have learned of all kinds of neat things.A lot of servers or anything with lots of storage is subject to being hacked. There was a printer that got hacked and had 2 pirated movies stored on it. There was a computer that was found behind a false wall on the network.. unknown how long it was there (few years is the guess). There was the server that got hacked that has students/employees SS numbers on it that happened a year or so ago.UTK doesn't have any kind of IT leadership. IT depts are swaying in the wind with no one to lead them. Of course UTK is a VERY easy target for the RIAA and hackers alike.What will end up happening is some of these students will figure out that UTK pretty much always settles out of court when sued. With that in mind I'm sure a lot of students will end up suing UTK and getting a lot more than the $3000 the RIAA stole (because IP address doesn't equal warm body).So, to my fellow K-vegasins... when will work on I-40 end? Trick question... it won't.
Closed AccountJan 31, 2008
lnxfi doesnt understand s**t about music
Closed AccountJan 31, 2008
there is a 100% chance they would lose if they fought the riaa in court.
bmwracer84Jan 31, 2008
Leave it to a hillbilly university to bow to the riaa. I wonder how the more prominent universities are taking this. Seriously though the riaa is just wrong. Next thing you know they will be going after single mothers who can barely afford to get by. Oh wait! They all ready have. Who is safe from this plague? Greedy pigs!
meagan14Feb 11, 2008
I'm currently being sued by the RIAA. Actually, I got served with papers this past Saturday, and I am a student at the University of Tennessee.I didn't settle for the first $3,000 pre-litigation letter, and I have not settled for the latest $5,000 settlement. I lived in a dorm room last year- I can't tell you how many people had access to my computer. Not to mention, I deleted (BEFORE I received the letter from the RIAA) the p2p I had on my computer that I NEVER used. Now, I'm accused of sharing 208 songs, ranging from MegaDeath to Barbie Girl. Seriously. (BTW, I have no idea who MegaDeath IS, not mention any music they make.)I have no idea how things are going to pan out, I'm currently looking for representation and seeing exactly what's going on. I have an "initial case management" meeting to attend on March 17th, in which I have to have legal representation. My main qualm is how easily the University surrendered my information. And they offered no help to us students whatsoever. No advice, nothing. Just handed everything over and kicked us into the proverbial pit of death.Just wanted you guys to know, not everyone is bending over and taking this up the tail pipe.