RE: [MLUG] Metallica suing universities for complicity in MP3 piracy

["Spurling, Shannon " <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

 But, if you have traffic utilization information for the customer circuit,
you could say "you do not have any more bandwidth because you are using it
all." The would then have two options. They could trust you to let them know
what is hogging the bandwidth, or they can order more bandwidth ( and
consequently loose it to napster). Unfortunately, in today's business
environment you could be working with a pointy haired boss type manager. You
could take a ruler and tell him a pipe is 12 inches and he is using all of
it. He would counter by saying how do I know your inches are a standard
inch? And then he would question every thing about how the pipe is
installed, before even thinking about why the pipe is full. 
 It's hard to deal with finger pointing. The best way is to avoid putting
them on the defensive. Avoid jumping to conclusions, and allow them time to
understand the information they are given. 
 You know Metallica is not going to win the law suit, but that's not the
important part. It is the appearance of defending the IP. I've heard about
this before, and I personally think it's just a way lawyers thought up to
fill the gaps between real work. According to the DMCA defense that Napster
is using, the universities are completely innocent. According to the wording
that I saw, it sounds like you can't prosecute any one but the pirate, and
those who participated. Not the person who wrote the FTP client, the FTP
daemon, the Kid with the Warez site that gives IP addresses and passwords
(napster). It's targeted at the downloader and the person who distributes
the files. They had to do this so it would pass, and so they could get in
the good graces of the ISP's so they would cooperate. It's the only way they
could make it halfway legal. 

Shannon Spurling
WAN Engineer -Specialist

MOREnet, Network Services, Core Network
3212 Le Mone Industrial Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65201

Main:(573) 884-7200   Fax:(573)884-6673

EMAIL:PROTECTED
EMAIL:PROTECTED

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Cravens [mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 8:29 AM
To: EMAIL:PROTECTED
Subject: RE: [MLUG] Metallica suing universities for complicity in MP3
piracy


This area of intellectual property rights is pretty consistently
misunderstood. It's not *necessarily* a matter of greed on the part of the
copyright defender when they start a lawsuit. The way the law usually
works, if anyone breaks copyright on a property you own, and you VISIBLY
PUBLICALLY DO NOT DEFEND IT, then you defacto lose your rights to that
property and it may be declared to be essentially public domain. In some
cases it takes only a single VISIBLE lack of defense for a property or
trademark to become PD. Can you say "aspirin"? Once a brand name, now a
generic term. This is why every frickin' waitress in the universe corrects
you if you order a Coke in a Pepsi shop. Coca-Cola must defend their trade
name, or lose it. Pepsi vendors thus know the drill, their parent
companies or suppliers having been taught through the legal system to
honor the competitor's trade name.

I'm not an IP attorney, but I've had considerable experience in and around
defense of IP rights re: software copyrights, and that's what I've always
seen/been told re: defense of copyright.

I'm not pretending to defend Metallica or their actions, but if the shoe
was on other feet in a case like this, many of us might feel very
differently. You don't really know until you're in that position of
potential loss of something you worked hard to create.

I think Napster is great technology, but it opens an incredible
legal/support can of worms that makes it almost not worth using/permitting
use of. One of our client corporate networks fell prey to it several
months back when an inexperienced user at that client's site opened
Napster up full bore to his desktop - whammo, all that company's outbound
bandwidth was saturated. Guess who was blamed? The bandwidth vendor, of
course. It didn't take us long to pinpoint the problem source, but it sure
was a lot of fun explaining it to that person's employer - who suddenly
had a new AUP from us. I just as well have delivered something in Greek -
no matter how carefully I documented the facts of the situation, we just
looked like we were fingerpointing instead of problem-solving. Is this
client sophisticated enough to better manage desktop use or fund the
appropriate tools for network management that prevent this type of
situation? Dream on.

-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Neil Bradshaw
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 7:55 PM
To: EMAIL:PROTECTED
Subject: RE: [MLUG] Metallica suing universities for complicity in MP3
piracy


If they have the money to sue universities, they have plenty of money.
Greedy bastards. They have a right to their music, but this is pathetic.
If
they want to do something constructive, how about putting out a record
that
isn't a corporate sellout.

Regards,
Neil

-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Mike Miller
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 12:04 AM
To: MLUG list
Subject: [MLUG] Metallica suing universities for complicity in MP3
piracy


Full story here:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1694163.html


Napster, universities sued by Metallica

By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

April 13, 2000, 4:35 p.m. PT

Heavy-metal band Metallica sued the Napster MP3-trading software company
and a trio of universities today, charging that together they were
responsible for massive violations of the band's copyrights.

[snip]

Metallica's case throws a new twist into the legal wrangling by alleging
the complicity of Yale University, the University of Southern California
(USC) and Indiana University in music piracy.

[snip]

"Some artists are in it for the pure art of music. Others are in it for
the money," said Wayne Chang, a Haverhill, Mass., student who manages
Napster's online community bulletin boards. "Metallica just showed which
side of the line they're on."

[snip]

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