can riaa subpoena me?

i'm a new user of acquisition. i used kazaa on my pc but hadnt found any program on my mac with quite the same results.. till the newest versions of acquisition. i'm happy with it, but with all this riaa stuff, a little worried. if i'm not sharing any files (merely downloading them) am i still at risk? would be grateful for any advice.

 

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Good question, but really needs a lawyer in your country to answer. Here are some links to get you started. If you're Canadian, this link is interesting. For the USA, boycott-riaa.com has some pretty good news, links, and strategies. They also report on news from other countries. Last week they linked to reports of a crackdown in Germany and Israel, and mention Australia too.

 

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of course I am not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice but YES. Although the likelihood of them catching you if you are only downloading is much slimmer because at the moment they are only going after those sharing.

 

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and they seem to be going after those using the kazaa network. not sure what aquisition uses, but your probably safe. might even be safe sharing.

 

Currently the RIAA only appears to be targeting people who share files, so those who merely download them are probably safe for the time being. You are still technically legally vulnerable, since you are breaking the law and all.

 

Acquisition is using the Gnutella network. The RIAA has not yet targeted anyone on the Gnutella network. The RIAA has also not yet targeted someone who only downloads.

 

Lemme 'splain...

At issue is the power of subpoena. In most (but not all) cases, a court has to actually issue that piece of paper. It essentially "orders" you to appear in court. I believe the concept is that there is a process, finalized by a judge seeing as there is good reason to issue it.

The twist here is that the RIAA is using a provision of the DMCA that "allows" any business entity to issue the subpoena. Without asking the court to do it. Many feel that this is a clear violation of due process, especially without any court "approving" the use of a power that normally only the government has the right to use.

 

The DMCA allows companies to request a subpoena from a court clerk rather than a judge. A company can't just decide to send you a subpoena, print one off, and mail it to you.

 

How does Aquisition work?
Do you have to pay for it?
Can you get good movies/shows and programs with it?
What does gnutella mean?

 

WARNING: Acquisition is Mac only. This means Macintosh NOT Windows.

Acquisition is just like Kazaa or any other Peer 2 Peer network. You enter the name of what you want and it searches for it. I could enter Thriller and it would come back with Michael Jackson - Thriller. I could then download the song. The searching is just like a search engine, ie: Google.

Acquisition is free, but you can donate money if you like it and use it a lot.

You can get good movies/shows with it, but keep in mind downloading movies is illegal. Shows, I think are legal.

There are two big Peer 2 Peer networks, Kazaa and Gnutella. They are designed differently and are good at different things. The files that the search engines will find are different for each network. Simply put, the difference is basically searching with Google and then doing the same search with Ask Jeeves. You will get similar, but different results.

 

Thanks!

 

They are targeting Gnutella also which is what Acq uses. Also keep in mind the RIAA isn't the only organization out there, they are just the ones getting the press. These companies are paid by the license owners everytime the bust someone so obviously I wouldn't recommend making yourself known to them.

 

Everyone that has been targeted so far were using the Kazaa network?

 

Yes you can get subpeona-ed.

Now start packing and get ready to travel to some uninhabited desert island filled with fire-breathing scorpions, venomous insects, and mosquitos the size of your arm.

 

The RIAA has so far only targeted people on the Kazaa network. The other entertainment industries have been targeting people on the eMule network. Gnutella has not been touched as far as I know. Btw, the makers of Kazaa just sued the RIAA. LOL

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Get the facts
http://www.eff.com/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php

 

Nasor, the point is that under the DMCA, a subpoena does NOT have to be vetted. The court clerk simply sends it along; that's pretty much exactly like the company sending it directly. A judge is considered part of "due process" but a clerk certainly isn't.

Scrollmaker, it really isn't "free." Using it without paying will only allow 1 hours use, then you have to wait for 5 minutes before you can re-launch the app. Pretty useless as a "free" application. This is very much the shareware model, reduced functionality until paid for. Also, Acquisition NOT a p2p network; it is a client for one particular p2p network, Gnutella.

While it SEEMS they are targeting Kazaa, one of the 261 was using a Mac! My impression was that the subpoena specified Kazaa; they "retracted" that particular subpoena.

steif, good link; much to digest there.

 

Uptown Guy,

It is free to download and use, but yes I should have stated it was shareware. It is good for me because I just hop on, download a song, and then quit, usually in under 10 minutes.

Mac users can use the Kazaa network, they just can't use Kazaa (the program). Liberty, made by the same person as Acquisition, accesses the Kazaa network instead of Gnutella.