Dear Danny

The extent of Penn’s help to students (Photo by Dan Brickley, of a poster in Harnwell College House)

The RIAA is at it again. They sent 403 “pre-litigation” letters to students who used university networks to download music illegally. The letters offer students the “opportunity” to settle before an official lawsuit is filed against them. The options are stark: thousands of dollars in “settlement” or protracted court battles, legal fees, and uncertain outcomes.

The students come from schools across the country. MIT has 30. UC-Santa Barbara, 13. The University of Wisconsin system has 62. And, unfortunately, our very own University of Pennsylvania will receive 31 letters to deliver to students.

But with so many prestigious schools being targeted, many industry observers wonder why Harvard University avoids conflict. From eight waves of these letters, Penn received 48 (at my count), while Harvard received only one, in 2005.

However, since Harvard Law professors stood up to the RIAA in the form of an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, the RIAA conspicuously avoids this Ivy League institution. The op-ed didn’t condone illegal file sharing, but it did call on the RIAA to, essentially, pick on someone their own size. The authors, Charles Nesson and Wendy Selzer, also call out the RIAA, saying “it is easier to litigate against change than change with it.”

While some affected schools refuse to deliver the letters, none have spoken the progressive words that Harvard has. And none have received a respite from the RIAA.

Although I do not condone peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted material (did you hear that, RIAA?), I do call on Penn and others to follow Harvard’s lead. The RIAA’s (and, coincidentally, Congress’s) support of outdated copyright laws should not prevent Penn and other like-minded institutions from standing up for change.

Penn can always refuse to deliver the letters, but demanding change in the letter of the law would be more effective.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 10:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.