Sadly we have reached a point in society where some people — in this case, college students — believe they have a “right” to other people’s property. The problem of illegal downloading of music on peer-to-peer networks is copyright infringment — also known as stealing. The problem continues at Duke University, as this Duke Chronicle story outlines, despite cease and desist letters from the Recording Industry of America (RIAA). It appears the RIAA has its eye on Duke, as this letter to the editor shows. Turns out the general counsel for the RIAA is a Duke Law graduate who brilliantly slices and dices the student argument that this is an issue of student privacy. As attorney Marks writes:
This isn’t a privacy issue. Engaging in illegal file trafficking-“sharing” a recording with millions of anonymous strangers on a public network-is anything but private. Just ask those peer-to-peer users who have inadvertently “shared” sensitive documents like tax returns or medical records available to any other user of the network. In enforcing the rights of its members RIAA does nothing more than anyone else using peer-to-peer networks to find illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted sound recordings, The Chronicle’s allegations of “questionable” legal tactics notwithstanding.
When is Duke University going to institute a zero tolerance policy to what is clearly stealing? Would the university stand by and let students steal cars? Music is property.
