The RIAA Explains How It Catches Alleged Music Pirates

To catch college students trading copyrighted songs online, the Recording Industry Association of America uses the same file-sharing software that online pirates love, an RIAA representative told The Chronicle at the organization's offices during a private demonstration of how it catches alleged music pirates. He also said the group does not single out specific colleges in its investigations.

The demonstration was given by an RIAA employee who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of concern that he would receive hate e-mail.

The official explained that one way the RIAA identifies pirates is by using LimeWire, a popular peer-to-peer file-sharing program that is free online and used by many college students (there is also a more-robust version of the program sold for a small fee).

Here's how the process works: The RIAA maintains a list of songs whose distribution rights are owned by the RIAA's member organizations. It has given that list to Media Sentry, a company it hired to search for online pirates. That company runs copies of the LimeWire program and performs searches for those copyrighted song titles, one by one, to see if any are being offered by people whose computers are connected to the LimeWire network. For popular songs, the search can turn up dozens, if not hundreds, of hits. A search on Madonna's latest release, "4 Minutes," turned up more than a hundred users trading various copies of the song.

The LimeWire software allows users who right-click on any song entry and choose "browse host" to see all of the songs that a given file sharer is offering to others for download. The software also lists the IP address of active file sharers. (An IP address is a unique number, assigned by Internet-service providers, that identifies every connection to the Internet.) While the names of the people associated with particular IP addresses are not public, it is easy to find out which IP addresses are registered to each Internet-service provider. Using public, online databases (such as those at arin.net or samspade.org), Media Sentry locates the name of the Internet-service provider and determines which traders are located at colleges or universities.

Read more at Chronicle.com.

Comments

[TheTripleThreat]

ooo, now i'm scared.

[Revalk]

I'm curious how bad things are in the US as far as downloading. Apparently Canada's laws are changing sometime soon to be similar to the US.

[ValoRhoads]

I'm glad I quit downloading when Napster first went down.

[Comeback Kiddd]

Stephen Colbert downloads music. i will too!

[Vrstone87]

too bad they can't do that to people with IP Guardian >.>

[James_Het_Rules]

Too bad those stupid dumb asses are so greedy. I understand an artist wanting to make a living but there is no way in hell ill pay for a full album when only one song on it is good. Whereas for bands like Metallica, Dream Theater etc etc that are actually good ill pay for those... but not for shit.

[Jeffray85]

i don't agree or disagree with piracy, it's not for me any more, i won't make excuses as to weather it's right or wrong, because both sides are hypocrites, the funny thing is i thought they would be a little more on top of it then this, they get paid to catch these people i thought they'd have high tech software, and some tact, this is funny and pathetic.

[Letterbomb11]

I'm pretty sure that that's not completely legal

[goon316]

If you want to support the bands you like go to their shows, thats where they make their money. Granted they make some off cd's but its like 3% of the price of the cd.

[fissh]

looks like limewire might lose a few users heh.

Also, Fuck you RIAA, right in the mouth

[TheReverend724]

Comeback Kiddd wrote:

Stephen Colbert downloads music. i will too!

+1

yeah, good luck with that, not only college kids pirate music...

[Gunpowder]

goon316 wrote:

If you want to support the bands you like go to their shows, thats where they make their money. Granted they make some off cd's but its like 3% of the price of the cd.

For most full-priced CD's, the artist actually makes about $1. However, most artists never see a profit from CD sales, as the band needs to pay a "recoupment"; if a record company pays a band $200,000 to record a CD, the band needs to pay back that $200,000 directly from their sales profit from the CD's before any of it starts to go into their pocket. Most bands don't make enough to cover the recoupment cost; 80% of all bands never see a penny from CD sales.

That said, yes. If you want to support the band, go see their show and buy merchandise.

[fireoptic]

Thanks RIAA for steering me away from downloading single songs like "4 Minutes" from Limewire, I'll be sure to download Madonna's full discography using Bit Torrent from now on.

If you're downloading Madonna songs, I think you deserve a lawsuit.

[pootoob]

If you're downloading Madonna songs, I think you deserve a lawsuit.

+100,000,000

I'm pretty sure that is illegal, like someone said earlier. Oh well, good thing I live in a small town in a small country, and use Bit Torrent.

[Discouraged]

fireoptic wrote:
I'll be sure to download Madonna's full discography using Bit Torrent from now on.

Downloading via torrents requires you to connect to a 'tracker' which allows everyone else connected to that tracker to see your IP address. I'm pretty sure the RIAA won't just limit themselves to Limewire. Torrents will also be monitored, so yeah, you won't get off that easy.

It's been said a million times before, but I'm going to say it again. Times are changing Mr RIAA CEO. Either keep up, or give up. I'm sorry to break it to you, but you just won't beat piracy. It's about time people came to terms with it.

[black.current]

stealing music kicks ass.....maybe if cd's didnt cost a fortune id buy more.

[n00barmy]

I buy most of my CDs from resellers from amazon so the record companies aren't really getting anything from me anyway. I love CDs but I'm not gonna pay 18+ dollars retail for a Helloween or Iron Maiden album.