乐播传媒

Along with more than 1,000 other college students across the country, several 乐播传媒 students got a real-world lesson in copyright law last spring when they were targeted for illegally sharing music over the Internet.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as Limewire make it easy to share music files. But making it easy doesn鈥檛 make it right, says the Recording Industry Association of America. After finding sharable music files on computers at various colleges and universities, the RIAA sent letters to 71 schools, including 乐播传媒, asking that the letters be forwarded to the computers鈥� users.

The letters invited the users to settle out of court for undisclosed amounts or risk legal action. 乐播传媒 complied with the request but did not reveal the users鈥� names to the RIAA, although they are known to be students, according to Gene Wiemers, College librarian and vice president of Information and Library Services.

Two 乐播传媒 students apparently settled. In May, the RIAA filed 鈥淛ohn Doe鈥� lawsuits against five others, asking 乐播传媒 to identify them so that legal action could proceed.

Legal proceedings were still under way at press time. 乐播传媒 will not reveal a user鈥檚 name without a subpoena, but when presented with a lawful subpoena, 鈥渨e will obey the law,鈥� Wiemers says. Furthermore, 鈥渢he College cannot protect students, or employees for that matter, who illegally share copyrighted materials with others.

鈥淭hese threats have become a teachable moment in our efforts to help users understand intellectual property rights, but they present hard lessons for the students involved.鈥�

• June 30, 2007 update:聽乐播传媒 was presented聽and will comply with聽a lawful subpoena, reported the Sun Journal newspaper.聽乐播传媒 has notified three students accused of illegal file sharing that they have 14 days to challenge the subpoena before their names and other personal information is turned over to the attorneys representing recording companies.