A panel discussion on music file-sharing will take place October 30th and OU grad-turned-RIAA-voicebox Jonathan Lamy will be there.

On the heels of a successful verdict against Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two who makes $36,000 a year and is ordered to pay the RIAA $220,000, Lamy and other pro-RIAA speakers will no doubt spend their time vigorously scolding and threatening student guests.

"Our objective here is not to be in court, it is to try and communicate a message that there is a consequence to when you steal music and you break the law," Lamy said shortly after the verdict.

But according to an article at News.com, Ms. Thomas did not steal music: the jury found her guilty only of making 24 songs available for download online. That figures out to be more than $9,100 per song.

It should come as no surprise that this prominent spokesperson for the RIAA would find his alma mater listed among the first wave of pre-settlement litgation notices. In April, the RIAA sent out 50 letters to 80 OU students (those who shared the same dorm room received complimentary duplicates). The letter demanded the student pay $3,000 or risk further monetary losses in a copyright infringement trial.

"Every letter that gets forwarded on makes the RIAA's extortion effort a little easier," an attorney was quoted as saying in The Post. Extortion, as defined by Wikipedia, is "when a person either obtains money, property or services from another through coercion or intimidation." While a jury has yet to call RIAA's pre-litigation letters "extortion," there are a number of cases that have attempted to do so, often comparing their efforts to the likes of Al Capone.

The reality seems to be that the RIAA is fighting a losing battle against technology that makes the days of buying music CD's obsolete. Why pay for one good song and eight lousy ones for $18 when you can pick the track you like on iTunes for less than a buck?

Tags: Ohio University RIAA file sharing Jonathan Lamy Jammie Thomas mp3 itunes extortion p2p napster kazaa

An Ohio University researcher has apparently come up with a very inexpensive way to generate hydrogen.

Gerardine Botte is already awaiting patent protection for her discovery and has approved a license with American Hydrogen Corporation. This could help spur the release of the long-awaited hydrogen fuel-cell technology to motorists everywhere.

Tags: Ohio University hydrogen fuel cell hydrogen fuel cell clean energy green athens police hybrid Gerardine Botte American Hydrogen

Last week, four Ohio University students were approached by an apparently mentally unstable man offering wads of hundred-dollar bills. They received a total of $2,200 from the peculiar, mumbling fellow before he stumbled off into the night.

In an act that would seem inconceivable to outsiders, the four students turned over the money to the Athens Police Department.

When asked why they did so, the students said their conscience wouldn't have it and, besides, the money had probably been stolen.

Picturing myself once again as an OU student walking along Court Street, back in the day when I was desperate for money to buy a pack of Ramen noodles or a beef Meximelt from Taco Bell, I'm not so sure I would have been so gallant. No, I'm fairly certain I would have pocketed the cash, thankful for all the generous, yet mentally challenged people loitering our streets.

Just consider the possibilities. With $2,200, you could:

1. Buy 183 large, 1-topping pizzas and 915 wings from Hungry Howies Pizza (with coupon)

2. Eat a Burrito Buggy burrito every day for a year and a half.

3. Chug 4,398 50-cent drafts at Pawpurrs (including $1 for the plastic cup)

4. Build an extra bedroom out of 8,800 bricks of Ramen noodles.

5. Fill your Ramen noodle bedroom with nearly 6,000 cans of Milwaukee's Best

6. Pay 4% of your four-year stint at Ohio University, including room and tuition fees.

Tags: Ohio University lottery athens ramen tuition police athens police college ou

A couple interesting local news tidbits have emerged in recent weeks, like resilient weeds. First, OU heads plan to work with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), cheerfully supplying them the names of 15 more students who they allege had illegally downloaded songs. Then the RIAA plans to sue these not-so-high-income, ramen noodle-eating pirates for every penny they don't have. Sock it to them, RIAA!

But if you thought the crusade stopped there, just wait! For today it was announced that Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is rounding up a posse to hunt down and find all those destitute OU alums who have defaulted on their Perkins loans, turn them upside down, shake them vigorously and hope for any loose change to fall out.

Yee-haw, Cousin Jeb! It's time for a hoe-down! Let's string 'em all up and hang 'em high!

Tags: Ohio University RIAA file sharing music industry ohio attorney general attorney general loan default perkins loan Marc Dann Terrence Hogan radio music

...at file sharing.

According to a report released by the Associated Press, Ohio University tops the list for complaints received by the Recording Industry Association of America. The school received nearly 1,300 complaints since January about students illegally sharing copyrighted music.

I'm no fan of the RIAA and the fact that some schools force offending students to watch one of their propaganda videos is a little disconcerting. The RIAA is it's own worst enemy and has done more to alienate music lovers than any shareware program could have.

Considering OU's locale, it's not surprising to me that we're number one in this category. Surrounded by rolling hills, Athens offers very little radio station variety. Couple that with the fact that, during your college years, music comes second only to alcohol, sex and academics. So where does one get his tunes fix when one can barely afford a Burrito Buggy burrito? The Internet, of course, courtesy of OU's computer network.

The school's public spin on the AP report is that they're simply doing a better job at identifying violations than other schools. As a result of the bad publicity, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Kent J. Smith sent an email to all OU students warning of grave consequences, even for "alleged first offenders."

Too bad the school couldn't spend more time preventing illegal downloads of student and alumni social security numbers than scolding students for file sharing.

Tags: Ohio University RIAA file sharing music industry identity theft college campus life college campus itunes ipod radio music

An interesting story was posted in today's Athens Messenger about the mother of an OU student who had accidentally "stolen" another student's car.

Kate Anderson, the OU mom, picked up what she thought was her daughter's gray 1980s-era Toyota Camry. She opened the door with the key, started the car and drove away.

As it turned out, it wasn't her daughter's car at all. In fact, it was OU student Charlie Vansant's Camry. Apparently, keys back in the 80's weren't made with very sophisticated technology and the possibility of two keys opening the same vehicle were pretty good.

And given the higher concentration of poor college students driving vehicles older than they are, the odds of two similar cars on campus increases just enough for something like this to happen.

The Camry was returned and the police closed the case without any charges.

So if you have any old car keys rusting in your junk drawer, you might want to take them with you to the nearest college campus. You just might hit the jackpot.

Tags: Ohio University car theft automobile keys grand theft auto