[Infowarrior] - Uni tells RIAA to pay for services rendered

[Richard Forno]

Aww, shucks -- now the RIAA is angry that Universities aren't doing things
specially for them (both immediately and strategically) and might actually
want to get paid for such efforts.  Good job, U of Neb!     -rf


U of Nebraska can¹t track down downloading students

http://education.zdnet.com/?p=926

The Recording Industry Association of America would love to give University
of Nebraska students who are illegally downloading music a chance to pay up
before taking them to court, but they can't find out who they are, the
lobbying group says. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the RIAA has sent
36 letters to Nebraska students they have found to be illegally downloading
music, but due to system programming, they can only find nine of the
students.

    "Probably not," said Walter Weir, the university's chief information
officer, when asked if the recording industry could locate the remaining
students in some other way. "If they can't give us any more information, I
don't know how in the heck anyone can find 'em."

The university's system was unintentionally designed to automatically change
a computer's Internet protocol address each time that computer is turned on.
The university only saves a record of these "IP addresses" for about a
month. It's the only tool the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and the
recording industry have to find the students.

RIAA spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen has been critical of UNL for failing to
keep computer records that would have made it easy to track down the UNL
offenders.

    "One would think universities would understand the need to retain these
records," she said.

The industry has sent more than 1,000 "cease and desist" complaints to UNL
during the current school year, more than all but two other U.S.
universities.

To make matters worse, the university wants to be reimbursed $11 for each
warning letter it processes.

    "We're spending taxpayer dollars tracking down RIAA problems," Weir
said. "Are we an agent of the RIAA? Why aren't they paying us for this?"

That request was rebuked by the RIAA. "It is neither practical nor
appropriate for us to entertain a reimbursement request," said Engebretsen.

The university is researching installing software that would hinder
students' ability to illegally download music.