At least one Internet big thinker said that the lawsuits spell trouble for his academic institution. John G. Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said that Harvard is "having to act as a cop toward its students on something that the university really has no business being involved in," the Crimson reported. Palfrey, who also lectures at Harvard's Law School, said the university probably will cooperate "to avoid subjecting the 'deep pockets' of its endowment to bigger legal battles," the paper also reported.
Before You Hit Send...
Lest you flame me once again on this topic, I'll bring you up to speed on my views on downloading. The corporations that own the rights to most of the media that we enjoy (or despise) would be better served by thinking of new ways to survive. Lawsuits won't solve the problem. The entertainment industry is stuffed to the gills with cynical suits who represent capitalism at its most rapacious while making sure that the product achieves baseline titillation while rarely demonstrating verve or originality. But just because they're wrong about jamming more Britney and Kenny G. down our throat doesn't make the pirates right.
| ___About Random Access___ Random Access is a daily column by Robert MacMillan that explores the latest trends in technology and how they are changing daily life. Random Access won't tell you why a new gizmo will revolutionize your ad server. It will tell you about episodes from daily life -- exasperated waiters who use blogs to vent about their customers, whole runs of salmon injected with nanoparticles for individual tracking in Norwegian fjords and the growing number of DJs who are sick of being sidelined in favor of iPods. (Only one of these stories is fake.) Most of what you see will be culled from news sources and blogs from around the world, though we will supplement Random Access with original files on the novel, unusual, bizarre and reactionary happenings in the world of technology and society. E-mail: Send links and comments. | | |
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She Moves in Mysterious Ways
One unanswered question in the mainstream and college media this morning is how the RIAA figured out that students were using the Internet2 to swap music. RIAA President Cary Sherman won't say. The Internet2 consortium, which includes more than 200 universities and 70 corporations, didn't learn about the association's investigation until a letter signed by Sherman showed up at their D.C. headquarters on Monday.
"They have not shared with us how they have gone about that," Internet2 spokeswoman Lauren Kallens told me yesterday. "There's been no special access granted to any organization."
It's not a given that the RIAA actually cracked the Internet2 network, but the Dzerzhinsky Square-style stealth tactics would suggest that the association probably hired some of the more skilled Internet investigators to substantiate its claims. But then again, who are we to engage in such speculation...
Who kNYU?
Several students at New York University are scheduled to find out whether they're going to get the pants sued off them today as well, but they could have avoided the whole thing if they'd known about "DRAM." That's the Database of Recorded Music, an online source for streaming -- not downloading -- rare American music.
"DRAM's true value is in its wide selection, which includes genres like folk, jazz, early rock, R& B, opera, classical and country. Even songs from major musical theater productions are offered," reported the Washington Square News, NYU's newspaper. "'DRAM offers [students] the opportunity to listen to important, rare and, in some cases unavailable, American music,'" said Arthur Moorhead, a producer for New World Records, a Buffalo-based company that contributes significantly to the database. 'With DRAM, the student could log on and listen to half a dozen different, complete albums, peruse the liner notes, discographies, bibliographies, artist profiles, et cetera.'"
Among other artists who show up on DRAM are avant-garde legend Frank Zappa, DJ Spooky and Harry Partch, a composer who designed more than 27 instruments. (Side note: For those of you who mount the "Robin Hood" defense -- ripping off the rich because they won't miss the money anyway -- Zappa spent much of his professional life fighting bootlegs. Still think he's cool?)
The News saved its best student quotes for the end of the story:
"Well, I've heard it mentioned but I have absolutely no idea what it's all about," Steinhardt freshman Robyn Savitsky said. "Over lunch a few weeks ago a friend of mine referred to it, but he didn't seem to know any details."
