IFPI Threatens UK Academic For Linking To Article

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Apparently the RIAA is getting sensitive about counterclaims. When a British blog author linked to a recent article about a defendant's counterclaims for extortion and conspiracy by the RIAA in a Florida case, UMG v. Del Cid, a record company executive who sits on the board of the RIAA's UK counterpart, the IFPI, threatened the author if he did not take his link down."

It's called a "Chilling Effect"

[advocate_one]

see here [wikipedia.org]

protection money

[timmarhy]

protection rackets operated in the exact same way. heavy guy comes in and gives you notice that unless you payup he'll make you suffer. and don't go to the cops ( or in this case, fight back in court ) he'll make it worse for you and everyone else.

Re:Really?

[Angostura]

Indeed. That final link is appalling. The first link is the one you want, it has the full set of e-mails and makes for an interesting read. http://newmusicstrategies.com/2007/06/14/an-ifpi-b pi-board-member-writes/ [newmusicstrategies.com]

The E-mail Exchange

[jellie]

It looks like his servers are taking a hit, so here's a copy of the e-mail exchange [p2pnet.net] between Andrew Dubber (the academic) and Paul Birch (the music executive). (Stupid lameness filter... I would have posted the text instead.)

Interestingly, Birch posted a comment in response to another person's question about creating backups:

Andrew

Thank you for clarifying these are my personal views not those of the IFPI, RIAA, BPI or others.

In response to Mark I actually think there is nothing wrong with making a copy for your own use, in a sense side-loading to an iPod or similar is an extension of that use. Under current copyright legislation there is a need for customers to be allowed that facility but without it giving rise to them then making multiple copies for sale. The very specific instrument that allows the one and not the other is the difficulty in drafting any amendment.

Paul

Revolver Records

So he supports fair-use and time-shifting, but not linking to sites on the web. Yay for stupid opinions!

I may be wrong ...

[DaveCar]

the RIAA's UK counterpart, the IFPI

But isn't the IFPI the International Federation of Phonographic Industries?

I think the UK equivalent of the RIAA is the The MCPS-PRS Alliance [mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk]?

Re:I may be wrong ...

[ayana]

I'm pretty sure that we in britain have the BPI [wikipedia.org] as our version of the RIAA, actually...may be wrong though

Re:Hardly a threat.

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

I can see why the RIAA/IFPI/et al think that threatening his uni might work and that anyone working for a uni doesn't have a right to speake against corporations (particularly protection rackets). I seem to recall that universities in the US have run away scared and offered money when threatened by the RIAA and not protected their students and staff (or even helped the RIAA sue them) even the innocent ones. Also, academic research is increasingly run for the benefit of corporations in the style of a protection racket with academia rolling over to any corporate demands. Didn't universities co-operate on stopping mathematicians discussing illegal primes too?

Even closer to home are the RIAA's unlawful, ex parte, "John Doe" proceedings which have been brought to get the names of the universities' students. I have yet to see a university even attempt to fight one in court. Instead, to date, they have been quiescently (a) waiving their students' due process rights, and (b) turning over their students' confidential information.