04/05/2006

Whee! More shenanigans from the RIAA!

A college student at MIT was caught with illegal music, and is being sued for $3,700 by the RIAA. She is attempting to negotiate her “settlement”, since she’s in college and hardly has that kind of cash. In her blog, she tells the story of her conversations with the Settlement Center, asking what sorts of options are available to broke college students.

The response from the Settlement Center was astounding:

The RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.

Admittedly, this is just one unsympathetic drone in the Settlement Center, and perhaps that’s not official company policy. But to tell a college student (at MIT, no less!) that she should drop out of the university and jeopardize her career and lifetime of earnings in order to pay a couple thousand dollars to the RIAA for some pirated music is unbelievable.