College Is Not Just for Date Rapists and Future Call Centre Employees Anymore! RIAA on the Offensive Against the Scourge of Campuses: Illegal Downloaders

The Recording Industry Association of America has sent its latest wave of threatening letters to college campuses throughout the United States. The latest batch (411 sent to 19 schools) are preemptive settlement attempts on behalf of the major record companies, bringing the total number of notices to 3,740. Part of an initiative to educate students and deter illegal file trafficking on campuses, this is the ninth wave of resolution letters, created to give downloading scoundrels the opportunity to resolve copyright infringement claims before legal action is taken against them.

“While it’s undoubtedly our last preference to bring legal action against students, music theft remains particularly acute on college campuses,” says Steven “Marky” Marks, executive VP/general counsel of the RIAA. “This theft triggers a harmful domino effect throughout the music community -- thousands of regular, working class musicians and others out of work, record stores shuttered, new bands never signed. When faced with this reality, we have no choice but to hold those individuals responsible for ignoring the law and all the great new legal ways to get affordable, high-quality music.”

In its latest press release, the RIAA reports that a survey by Student Monitor found that over half of students illegally download music and movies, and the NPD Group of market researchers surmised that $1.3 billion were lost due to college student downloaders during 2006. If that were not enough of a cause for concern, Tiny Mix Tapes polled our college readership (17 students) and found that downloading is now a more attractive past-time for male students than “polishing your rifle” by yourself as you cry in your lonely dorm room, and more fun than driving a fellow student to an eating disorder for female scholars! DAMN YOU DOWNLOADERS!

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