Princeton University student Joseph Barillari posted an essay, which has since been updated several times, titled An analysis of the RIAA’s complaint against Dan Peng ’05, on his blog. This document is a useful resource that contributes to the understanding of the specific technologies and their applications at issue in the RIAA’s lawsuit on contributory copyright infringement against his fellow student. In addition, see this site by Zack Rosen, that provides a information capsule on each of the students involved in the lawsuits, with links to the complaints and the respective websites they operated, related news articles, and a well illustrated description of file sharing technologies across local area networks (LANS), an issue with which many of us are not familiar.
One ramification of the lawsuits is evident in this message to students from the Office of the Dean of Harvard College (Harry R. Lewis). Quoting from the letter, “The College, therefore, will terminate the network access of any student who is a repeat offender, that is, a student who has been warned about a first incident of copyright infringement and who is again found to have been downloading, reproducing, or distributing copyrighted material in violation of the copyright laws. The length of termination will be one year. Termination of network access includes all devices owned or registered by the student.” Try going a week without web access, let alone a year, when you are in college! See also Lewis Threatens To Unplug Illicit File Traders. And while you’re at it, see Will the RIAA Sue Google?