The US media industry is targeting universities in the latest wave of its campaign against illegal file-sharing.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have sent letters to 40 US universities.

 

They want the colleges to filter traffic to stop what they describe as an "ever evolving problem".

 

The RIAA and MPAA has been involved in a long-running battle to stem the sharing of copyrighted files online.

 

Campus networks

 

In the latest stage of their campaign, the two industry bodies have written to 40 universities in 25 states highlighting what they called "piracy problems" on their computer networks.

 

Both the RIAA and the MPAA acknowledged that the colleges have made efforts to curb illegal file-sharing on local area networks (Lans), but said more action was needed.

 

"Campus Lan piracy is not new, yet the problem has taken on new urgency," said RIAA President Cary Sherman.

 

"As we prioritise our focus on campus Lan piracy in the coming year, we hope administrators will take this opportunity to fully evaluate their systems and take action to stop theft by all means."

 

The RIAA and the MPAA urged universities to consider the use of filtering technologies to stop students illegally sharing music and movies.

 

This is not the first time that campus networks have been in the crosshairs.

 

In April 2003, the RIAA mounted legal action against the student operators of four campus networks at three schools.

 

Since then, it says universities have taken down at least a dozen campus servers where illegal file-sharing was prevalent.

 

In November, a file-swapping superfast network popular with US students closed down following repeated legal pressure from the entertainment industry.

 

The i2Hub network took advantage of the Internet2 research network which connects some 207 US universities.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk

this msgboard isn't in danger...*i really hope*

Thank God my university doesn't give a crap! :cheesy:

Haven't they heard of King Canute??:thinking:

I had an idea to help the problem.

 

Most people download albums to see what they are like, because you can't buy an album from a shop, bring it home and find out that it's a pile of shit, and return it these days because the music store might think you have made a copy of the album, so if your lucky, you might get an exchange for another album.

 

So if the record label puts the album online as a free download, but the bit-rate being low (128 kbps or 64 kbps), as WMA files which prevent those files being burned to a cdr and with coding to stop them working 1 week after downloading. This will give people enough time to listen to the album, decide that it's good enough to buy and hence buy it. Also it gives the listener time to say "god this album is shit, thank god I didn't spend a £10 buying it".

 

True it wouldn't work on Macs, but IMO it looks like a good idea to help sales back up :)

Brilliant idea!