New RIAA "Scare" Video for college students

Update: Ha! Weird Al to the rescue! (Thanks James!)

The RIAA has produced a new scare video for incoming college students called Campus Downloading.  In it, they muddle and twist all kinds of facts, making it out as if you'll be criminally prosecuted for downloading music and/or kicked out of school.

A few things I noticed:

1) There's no distinction in the video between the risk of downloading vs. uploading.  To date, no one has been sued or prosecuted for solely downloading music; only uploaders have been targetted.

2) There's no distinction between criminal prosecution and civil law suits.  In order to be criminally liable for copyright infringement, you have to willfully infringe, usually with some kind of financial incentive.  To date, no criminal prosecutions have been brought against students who simply download for fun.

3) They claim that any kind of copying without permission is illegal.  This is clearly not the case, as fair use allows copying without permission and is explicitly written into the Copyright Act.  Plus, if you copy music onto Audio CD-Rs, you've already paid the royalties that allow you to make the copies without needing permission.

4) They claim that making any copies of any music for friends is "just as illegal as downloading." Presumably, this includes making a mixed CD for a girlfriend or buddy -- something most people consider to be fair use.  It's exactly these kinds of extreme positions that make the RIAA look ridiculous and out of touch with today's music fans.

Comments

[Nathanael]

What many people seem to fail to realise is that it is actually stealing doing piracy. Trying to justify doing it by looking at a few exceptions is just trying to get away with doing it. If you get sued for doing it accept that you broke the law. Basically, either stop doing it or take the rap when you get sued. If you want to email me go ahead.

[Kaisen]

I think getting kicked out of school is technically possible if you violate their terms of use. I remember Residential Computing told us not to illegally download music or software, but people were warned more for bandwidth consumption then content.