RIAA propaganda movie for students in desperate need of remix

The RIAA has just released a back-to-school propaganda video called "Campus Downloads" that is full of lies, half-truths, omissions, and intimidation aimed at convincing students to stay away from file-sharing.

This is such a steaming pile that it desperately needs to be remixed. Someone out there needs to make a version where every lie is interrupted with an explanation of the real story, to be shown alongside of it.

You think it can't happen to you. You need to meet Derek.

Derek: I was in my morning Spanish class when the teacher went to the door and said Derek, you need to leave the class. I went outside and there was a campus police officer and an FBI agent in my room… They showed me some paper and asked, 'Is this you?'

[[Welcome to 1984 — every Internet connection is wiretapped to preserve the business model of the music pirates who got rich ripping off composers to make records, back when that was illegal]]

You may not know Derek, but he's one of tens of thousands of people whose lives are now entangled in legal actions all over the country…

[[With 70 million more to come]]

Sharing copyrighted music files is stealing, no different from shoplifting music from a store.

[[Except that you pay a thousandth of the penalties for actual stealing, because this isn't about stealing, it's about controlling the future of music distribution, and the RIAA wants to stay right in the middle of it]]

Derek: I work 40 hours a week to pay legal bills… The weight on my mind, knowing for the rest of my life, having to explain why I'm a felon.

[[Like this fell out of the sky, like the RIAA didn't decide to ruin this kid's life]]

Look, it's simple: Unless you get permission if the music you find on the web is owned by someone else, you can't share it, download it or copy it, period.

[[Except for fair use, which is especially available to scholars]]

And in most cases if it's free, it's not legal.

[[Except for the 160 million Creative Commons works that have been created in the last three years]]

Making copies for your friends, giving it to them to copy…is just as illegal as downlaoding it.

[[In other words, making a mix-tape is illegal]]

Link

(Thanks, Jason!)

Update: Brandon sez, "Apparently that Derek 'Mickey' Borchardt in the video was on the far extreme of 'file sharing' and prosecuted by the feds, and not just the RIAA. He was a member 'Apocalypse Crew' which was convicted of prereleasing music."