Cops seize dorm PCs in college raid

BillyGoat · Post by **BillyGoat** » Sun May 11, 2003 11:14 am

Ohio State cops have made the latest raid on techie college students, seizing computer equipment from three freshman and one sophomore.

Officers charged into the students' dormitory rooms earlier this month in a search for evidence linking them to a file-trading network run on the OSU network, The Lantern reports. Search warrants in hand, the coppers nicked some computers, video game manuals, Blockbuster movie rental cards, DVDs, a microphone and a power cord.

"I thought they were coming in for a drug raid," Josh Cavinee, a sophomore in aeronautical engineering told the school paper. "They came in, patted me down and made me sit in the corner. It's a good thing we didn't have drugs here."

It is too, Josh.

Freshman Patrick Muckerman was not as lucky. The computer engineering student was found to have a computer running a server that helped other students search for files. All of the students are thought to have been running Direct Connect Hub file-sharing software on OSU's ResNet network.

Police officials would not tell the paper what kind of charges the students may face, but it's not hard to venture a guess. Earlier this month, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) settled up with four other busted file-trading students to the tune of $59,500.

It's a little harder to justify these types of raids on college students after a Los Angeles court cleared a path for file-swapping software. The students were playing a similar role to StreamCast and Grokster, serving as a file trading facilitators, if you will.

The really bad ones are the 3,000 students sucking up OSU's bandwidth. Why not put the entire campus under house arrest?

Detective Willis Amweg stated in an affidavit that: "Section 291.04 ORC (Ohio Revised Code) makes it a criminal offense for any person to knowingly gain access to any computer network beyond the scope of the express consent of the owner of the computer network."

A directive that vague and broad should be sufficient to shut down all of the collegians' PCs - one power cord at a time.

None of the OSU students were arrested, and the police admitted they are not quite sure what to do next. The RIAA's SWAT team has no doubt booked a flight to Columbus, so it can help.

One of the OSU students denied running any type of trading hub in his comments to The Lantern.

"I wasn't running a hub; they just think I was," said Eric Diamond, a freshman in electrical and computer engineering. said. "I used the system, and that is it."

Police have not returned his calls for more information. ®

Source Here

Didnt the supreme court rule file sharing networks as not being illegal?

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sun May 11, 2003 11:48 am

i think we all should sue the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for invasion of privacy.
that is the new form of government over control !
it should be the next thing the civil liberty attorneys go at battle in the courts- to keep are rights
its like are right to free speach -its are right to make and copy cds of what ever are equipment can copy as long as we are not reselling it for profit . :chicken

edit
ok give me a dvd burner so i can really piss off the RIAA becouse i can record more then on a cdr !

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun May 11, 2003 2:54 pm

George Orwell, here we come. The RIAA is Big Brother....

Phjorg · Post by **Phjorg** » Sun May 11, 2003 9:28 pm

you guys have any better ideas to stop the theft of music?

BillyGoat · Post by **BillyGoat** » Sun May 11, 2003 9:32 pm

I dont see the cops raiding auto parts stores where slim jims and radar detectors can be found

Phjorg · Post by **Phjorg** » Sun May 11, 2003 9:39 pm

Originally posted by BillyGoat
I dont see the cops raiding auto parts stores where slim jims and radar detectors can be found

soo? i don't see cops raiding gun stores where guns and bullets can be found... i hear guns and bullets can be used in crime, you would think the cops would clamp down on people selling such things...

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun May 11, 2003 9:46 pm

I dont see the cops raiding auto parts stores where slim jims and radar detectors can be found

Touche'!

Bottom line is that preventing casual file swapping is impossible.

Despite all this, they still sell a tremendous number of albums - not just to people like me who prefer a good copy (I rip all my stuff to MP3, but I rip it at 254K and DO NOT use regular normalization which ruins the quality) and not have to worry about what a poor rip someone else did, but especially teenagers who still like having the original album (they've done a lot of marketing research on this).

No doubt they're losing money, but it's they're own fault for waiting so long to get on the bandwagon.

People will CONTINUE to buy CDs IF either the prices come down and/or they start offering more value for the money.

What they're already doing in Japan and some European countries is to allow people to buy music BY THE SONG and have a custom CD made up - right in the store while you wait. MAKES SENSE. Charge a dollar a song or less, and allow people to compile their own albums.

Let's face it, what REALLY pisses people off is to spend $15 - $25 on an album when there's only 2 or 3 songs on it worth a crap (Billy Joel and a very few other artists being an exception to that rule).

BillyGoat · Post by **BillyGoat** » Sun May 11, 2003 11:34 pm

soo? i don't see cops raiding gun stores where guns and bullets can be found... i hear guns and bullets can be used in crime, you would think the cops would clamp down on people selling such things...

Thankyou for helping me make my point with another example

Ludicris

Phjorg · Post by **Phjorg** » Mon May 12, 2003 12:29 am

Originally posted by BillyGoat

Thankyou for helping me make my point with another example

I was trying to illistrate the absurdidty of your example with mine... it's people that commit crimes, not tools. Having a gun or a slim jim isn't a punnishable offence, it's what you do with it that can be considered criminal. Likewise, owning a computer doesn't target you for the cops. but setting up a porn ring, or hacking, or aparently now, dealing in stolen music, and the cops will be busting down your door... i'm not sure if you were being sarcastic too and making the same point as me, kinda seemed like you could be clueless too... dunno...

BillyGoat · Post by **BillyGoat** » Mon May 12, 2003 12:36 am

in a search for evidence linking them to a file-trading network

your original coment was "you guys have any better ideas to stop the theft of music?"

it's people that commit crimes, not tools.

yes i couldnt agree more, I was being sarcastic BTW- they shouldnt have search warrants based on gathering evidence of file sharing- its just the tool

If i have upset you i appologize I did not mean to flame or demean anyone.....
Clueless, I am far from

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Mon May 12, 2003 12:41 am

sombody said this before so its not my ideal but i totlay agree.

Why not go after M$? because i can go to a collage network... do a search for *.mp3 and it will find it all.

Karchiveur · Post by **Karchiveur** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:05 am

I don't live in US but man... I don't think i have heard of this happening in Canada?(Police computer raids)

But what i don't understand is why those peeps wern't taking precautions...
for instance when or i mean if i do set up something like what they have done i would have atleast 1 HD erase PIN and right now i am trying to figure out how to become "invisible" to everything
on the internet and network... (getting progress)

But if you think about it this is all like some old movie showing the future of the goverment controling everyone and everything and that even our own computers a victims of invasion...

But like FlyingPenguin said "Bottom line is that preventing casual file swapping is impossible. " and this is one of greatest things ever in my mind... because as much as the goverment tries to control it they never will !

(My 2cents)

Jordan