How the RIAA finds music pirates, and stupid-proof ways to beat it
The RIAA, everyone’s favorite big brother-like organization with a penchant for insanity, is probably best known for cracking down on illegal pirating of music by members of the college community. An anonymous source has leaked the way the RIAA tracks down and deals with music pirates, and there are some sure-fire ways to avoid that messy affair altogether.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that one RIAA employee, who chose to remain anonymous due to the rather unfriendly nature of emails such employees tend to receive, has come forward and unveiled the less than complicated way the Recording Industry Association of America goes about seeking out and prosecuting music pirates, particularly on the P2P platform Limewire, which is used widely used in the college community.
Here’s how it goes down:
- The RIAA keeps a running list of songs that the protection group has distribution rights to, and that list is then handed over to Media Sentry, a company that’s sole purpose is to seek out internet pirates.
- Media Sentry then uses computers loaded with the Limewire peer-to-peer platform to simply search for songs on that list.
- When the song pops up, Media Sentry can see what users have downloaded the song, and with a few swift mouse clicks, can ascertain the IP addresses and ISPs of all the users who have downloaded the song through Limewire.
- From there, Media Sentry reports the information of all pirates back to the RIAA, who will send you a nice little notification that it realizes you have stolen the music.
- Though the Chronicle of Higher Education might believe the RIAA is sweet in its dealings with students, many know otherwise; you might receive some sort of cease and desist warning, but more than likely the RIAA will threaten to or present you with a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Pretty simple, right? Not rocket science for anyone who knows more about computers than how to point and click.
For the record, Blorge, nor any of its writers, condone piracy in any way shape or form. The following is a just a statement of fact about alternative P2P methods of sharing files; how you choose to use them is up to you.
Ok, so here are the ways you can avoid getting involved with the RIAA:
1. Don’t pirate anything, stupid! It’s illegal.
2. Don’t use Limewire. In addition to being a cesspool for viruses and malware, you’re leaving your rear end flapping in the breeze, and getting personal information from Limewire is pretty simple. Whenever I’m asked to fix a computer, nine out of ten times that computer is loaded with viruses…and Limewire. I don’t charge initial service fees, but I do charge if I have to come back because you were too stupid to avoid Limewire a second time. The same goes for Kazaa or whatever else you kids are using these days.
3. Share files in other ways:
-Believe it or not, there is such a thing as giving your friend a CD or letting them borrow your flash drive. The less transferring over the internet you have to do, the better off you’ll be.
- Use an online storage account. If you’re looking to share something directly with your friend or family member, let them access the account and you can both get access to the same legal material.
- Use file transfer features of chat programs like AIM. Though ISPs like Comcast are trying to throttle back all P2P traffic, you can still transfer files through instant messaging programs.
- If you’re looking to get into something a little more complicated but with better features, look into Bittorrent — not the program, but torrenting in general.
- If your penchant for file sharing can’t be quenched, do some research into “newsgroups.” I’m going to leave it at that. It’s complicated and not for the faint of heart, but if you have a moderate to advanced level of computer comprehension, newsgroups can be a treasure for those who would partake.
Again, the easiest way to avoid getting into a scuffle with the RIAA is to simply not share files, or to not be dumb enough to use the worst P2P platform out there, Limewire. Enough said.
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May 14th, 2008
I have a shop here in NC where I fix computers. 6-10 times they have limewire and apparently download music illegally. I tell them to uninstall it, because it is a good way to mess up your computer, and that downloading music this way is illegal. But probably most of them don’t care and get a virus the next day :-\
May 18th, 2008
tell them it sucks on performance and gives viruses. Because it does both. Most feel clever using it but its not its just lame even if it did have a “legal” use it just sucks so badly.
May 29th, 2008
Another way to share music and videos is to buy and sell on auction sites such as eBay. Obviously although ripping copies for yourself is still not legal. Buying and selling legitimate originals is, and can in some cases even be profitable. So I don’t really see how harassing people who use P2P actually achieves anything in terms of preventing piracy, when the free market itself offers a means for people to share media freely and people have the physical means to rip personal copies.