Spring Break
Music magnate finds violations
RIAA detects about 45 Eau Claire students infringing copyright
Matt Ollwerther
Issue date: 10/23/03 Section: Campus News
The Recording Industry Association of America felt it had a good reason to ask sophomore Margaret Fries to stop downloading music in her residence hall.
In fact, the RIAA claimed to have 998 reasons.
The university contacted Fries and her freshman friend Staci Cantillon during Homecoming weekend via an e-mail. It stated that failure to respond to the e-mail in 24 hours would result in referral to the dean of students, where further punitive action could be taken.
"I've just kind of been playing the waiting game to see if I get something in the mail or not," said Fries, who has about 1,000 songs on her computer.
"I don't know if (the RIAA is) just trying to talk big or if they're actually going to do it," she said in an interview earlier this month.
Fries said she was lucky, because the university served as a buffer between her and the RIAA.
Fries and Cantillon received an e-mail from UW-Eau Claire Copyright Officer Bob Rose explaining the violation, how to avoid legal action and a list of a few artists on their computers.
"The RIAA has informed us that you may be liable for infringing activity," Rose wrote in the e-mail to Fries. "It is our responsibility to insure that any infringing music files are removed, or we have no option but to disable access to the infringing files being offered on our network."
Rose has contacted 36 students this semester as of last week regarding copyright infringements. He estimated 80 percent of the infringement complaints are related to the RIAA.
Nine more complaints arrived on his desk Wednesday, and the students in violation will be contacted soon, he said.
"We actually take a pretty soft approach to this overall," Rose said.
He added that other universities find the student and discontinue Internet access immediately, in some cases before the student has a hearing to state his or her case.
Since the e-mail from Rose, both Cantillon and Fries have turned off the sharing features on their software.
In fact, the RIAA claimed to have 998 reasons.
The university contacted Fries and her freshman friend Staci Cantillon during Homecoming weekend via an e-mail. It stated that failure to respond to the e-mail in 24 hours would result in referral to the dean of students, where further punitive action could be taken.
"I've just kind of been playing the waiting game to see if I get something in the mail or not," said Fries, who has about 1,000 songs on her computer.
"I don't know if (the RIAA is) just trying to talk big or if they're actually going to do it," she said in an interview earlier this month.
Fries said she was lucky, because the university served as a buffer between her and the RIAA.
Fries and Cantillon received an e-mail from UW-Eau Claire Copyright Officer Bob Rose explaining the violation, how to avoid legal action and a list of a few artists on their computers.
"The RIAA has informed us that you may be liable for infringing activity," Rose wrote in the e-mail to Fries. "It is our responsibility to insure that any infringing music files are removed, or we have no option but to disable access to the infringing files being offered on our network."
Rose has contacted 36 students this semester as of last week regarding copyright infringements. He estimated 80 percent of the infringement complaints are related to the RIAA.
Nine more complaints arrived on his desk Wednesday, and the students in violation will be contacted soon, he said.
"We actually take a pretty soft approach to this overall," Rose said.
He added that other universities find the student and discontinue Internet access immediately, in some cases before the student has a hearing to state his or her case.
Since the e-mail from Rose, both Cantillon and Fries have turned off the sharing features on their software.
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