Re: Arielle's question re: RIAA amnesty

[Michael Burke <mburke@xxxxxxx>]

If anyone responded to Arielle, I missed the post.  In any case, my own thoughts are consistent with Marin County DA Ira Rothken.  http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/ebusiness/story/0,10801,84845,00.html

For the RIAA to promise not to "support or assist in any copyright infringement suits based on past conduct" is disingenuous.  If you don't own the copyright, you don't have the authority to grant immunity from prosecution for infringement.  Users who participate in
Clean Slate should expect that RIAA records will be subpoenaed by copyright holders, and used to prosecute infringement lawsuits.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued a similar warning against accepting the RIAA's offer.

BTW, Arielle, your email address is rather, um, disconcerting.

--Michael

digital-copyright-digest-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> digital-copyright Digest 14 Oct 2003 15:00:00 -0000 Issue 270
>
> Topics (messages 624 through 624):
>
> New RIAA affidavit deal
>         624 by: Arielle
>
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:24:14 -0700 (PDT)
> To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From: Arielle <kidsaretasty@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: New RIAA affidavit deal
> Message-ID: <20031013222414.40825.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi.  I'm a student at Hunter College, CUNY, and I'm
> writing a paper on Intellectual Property in the age of
> the Internet.  (It's for Soc 425: Empirical Research
> Using the Internet).
>
> Anyway, one of my assignments for the class is to post
> something of substence on a listserv related to my
> paper topic. . . Which this one is. :)  So here is
> some recent news that I didn't see in the archives.
> (If this was posted before I apoligize):
>
> The RIAA has agreed to grant amnesty to users who
> voluntarily pledge to stop illegally sharing files
> online, through a program it calls the Clean Slate
> Program.  The link to a description of this program
> can be found here:
>
> http://www.riaa.com/pdf/cleanSlateDesc.pdf
>
> The user must delete all illegal music files on their
> computer and fill out an affidavit which must be
> legally notarized, in which the user states that they
> have destroyed these files,  and that if they download
> any files in the future they can be sued by the RIAA.
> A copy of the affidavit can be found here:
>
> http://www.riaa.com/pdf/cleanSlateAffidavit.pdf
>
> Thoughts on this?   I personally think it's another
> way for the RIAA to scare people into stopping their
> music sharing.
>
> Hope this is appropriate to the list. . .
>
> ~Arielle Kuperberg
> Hunter College, CUNY
>
> =====
> -----------------------------------
> The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.                -Audre Lorde
>
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--
Michael A. Burke, Ph.D.
Technologies Integration Specialist
Innovative Technology Center
Office of Information Technology
The University of Tennessee
mburke@xxxxxxx
http://itc.utk.edu/~burke
865-974-8893 *voice
865-974-8655 *fax


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