Ever since their beautiful new stationery came back from the printers, the RIAA has been sending off letters nonstop -- mostly in the interest of strengthening relationships with distant (yet no less cherished) relatives, but there are a notable 403 that have a colder tone and are not lightly spritzed with perfume. These letters have been sent to 403 of the most notorious randomly selected file-sharers on college campus networks, and their demand for pre-litigation settlements is a continuation of the RIAA's campaign to crack the skulls of external-hard-drive-maxing-out college kids. Those who receive the letters are requested to visit p2plawsuits.com and settle their cases out of court at a discounted price.
"The music industry continues to develop exciting new digital models that offer fans, including college students, their favorite music how they want it and where they want it," said Steven Marks, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the RIAA. "The good news is that students represent some of music's biggest fans. Unfortunately, they too often turn to illegal sites for their music." Marks then put up an image of stick-figures being dangled over a pit of snakes on the overhead projector. "And that is why students must be punished. Punished like the days of old. Hear my words, students: you are not safe. Not anywhere. You'll go to a football game and all of a sudden the man on the loudspeaker will call for a doctor -- it's an emergency. In a forest even, by yourself, one day you'll notice how the deer are diseased or how the rivers are dried up -- something. Run to the edge of nowhere, John Q. Public. We have the best binoculars."
The campuses targeted this time around are: Arizona State, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State, North Dakota State, Purdue (West Lafayette and Calumet campuses), University of California - Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, University of Maryland - College Park, University of Massachusetts (Amherst and Boston campuses), University of Nebraska - Lincoln, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Stevens
Point, Stout and Whitewater campuses).
It appears that DeVry has received yet another pardon.
