Spring Break
RIAA still issuing subpoenas
Tara Cegla
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: News
Think paying 99 cents for a song is a lot? How about $750?
This is a reality for some UW-Eau Claire students, who have been busted by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"It's been really hard to have to be the one to tell them they are facing this lawsuit," Associate Dean of Student Development Jodi Thesing-Ritter said. Some students have had to drop out of school in order to pay for their legal fees, Thesing-Ritter said.
In the spring of 2007, the RIAA issued 26 subpoenas to Eau Claire students and Thesing-Ritter said many were referred to legal services on campus to help with negotiating with the Recording Industry. She also said that most settlements were around $3,000 because they were settled out of court.
"The reality is that there are consequences to these actions," Thesing-Ritter said. She hopes these students go and tell everyone they know about their story so others realize it could happen to them.
Junior Steph Nohr is familiar with this story.
"I feel like I've become an advocate to download legally," she said. Nohr was one of the 26 students subpoenaed in spring 2007. She said she downloaded 300 songs in a two-month span, stopping in January 2007.
"I heard around campus that they (RIAA) targeted schools so I stopped," Nohr said. She still got caught, about three months after she stopped illegally downloading, shortly after spring break of her freshman year.
Thesing-Ritter said when the RIAA catches students, the university informs them through a take-down e-mail notice. If they live on campus, their network access is taken away for 14 days.
Nohr wasn't sure what to think of the e-mail.
"I thought, 'Is this real? Is this just a threat?'" Nohr contacted Thesing-Ritter to better understand what was happening to her and Thesing-Ritter confirmed her fears.
"Everyone does it and I thought I wouldn't be the one to get caught," Nohr said. Most of Nohr's friends downloaded thousands of songs, much more than she had.
This is a reality for some UW-Eau Claire students, who have been busted by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"It's been really hard to have to be the one to tell them they are facing this lawsuit," Associate Dean of Student Development Jodi Thesing-Ritter said. Some students have had to drop out of school in order to pay for their legal fees, Thesing-Ritter said.
In the spring of 2007, the RIAA issued 26 subpoenas to Eau Claire students and Thesing-Ritter said many were referred to legal services on campus to help with negotiating with the Recording Industry. She also said that most settlements were around $3,000 because they were settled out of court.
"The reality is that there are consequences to these actions," Thesing-Ritter said. She hopes these students go and tell everyone they know about their story so others realize it could happen to them.
Junior Steph Nohr is familiar with this story.
"I feel like I've become an advocate to download legally," she said. Nohr was one of the 26 students subpoenaed in spring 2007. She said she downloaded 300 songs in a two-month span, stopping in January 2007.
"I heard around campus that they (RIAA) targeted schools so I stopped," Nohr said. She still got caught, about three months after she stopped illegally downloading, shortly after spring break of her freshman year.
Thesing-Ritter said when the RIAA catches students, the university informs them through a take-down e-mail notice. If they live on campus, their network access is taken away for 14 days.
Nohr wasn't sure what to think of the e-mail.
"I thought, 'Is this real? Is this just a threat?'" Nohr contacted Thesing-Ritter to better understand what was happening to her and Thesing-Ritter confirmed her fears.
"Everyone does it and I thought I wouldn't be the one to get caught," Nohr said. Most of Nohr's friends downloaded thousands of songs, much more than she had.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 20
SueTheCustomer
posted 11/07/08 @ 12:22 PM CST
What exactly are "they" monitoring? Is the University allowing access to their server logs to anyone who asks or is this off-campus monitoring of P2P file sharing? It seems to me there should be an alert given to all students regarding the RIAA's draconian tactics, not just a news article after the fact. (Continued…)
Matt
posted 11/07/08 @ 4:45 PM CST
The university does not share logs with anyone, nor do they monitor what data students upload or download.
The RIAA connects to Peer to Peer networks and monitors the data people are uploading and downloading. (Continued…)
Nathaniel Shuda
posted 11/10/08 @ 7:46 PM CST
As the article suggests, this is not a new issue at UW-Eau Claire.
During the 2006-07 academic year alone the RIAA notified the university of 473 student violations -- up from 199 violations in 2005-06, according to the association's Top 25 schools with the most complaints, published Feb. (Continued…)
jasonglades
College essay
posted 2/16/09 @ 6:01 AM CST
I must admit that it had been really hard to have to be the one to tell them they are facing this lawsuit.
Steve M
posted 2/17/09 @ 5:50 PM CST
I figure all the recording industry needs to do is successfully sue every person in America under the age of 35 and they'll be able to go back to selling overpriced CDs chock full of filler and like one song people might want. (Continued…)
Maria Schellden
posted 2/28/09 @ 8:21 AM CST
I have to agree with teh poster above... :/ looks like a lot of hot air to me.
Gloria Capel
posted 3/07/09 @ 2:06 AM CST
Good information. Thanks for the post.
Wilma Walker
posted 3/07/09 @ 11:26 AM CST
I like articles like this. Great Article! Thanks!
Linda Eaton
posted 3/11/09 @ 4:35 AM CST
Thank you for writing the article, I am very pleased with how it came out.
Angela James
posted 3/13/09 @ 12:26 PM CST
Good scene, interesting post, thanks.
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