Depending on who you talk to, downloading music online is either an unscrupulous crime or a free alternative to iTunes. Today's major record labels believe in the former, and they've spent the better part of the last decade trying to protect their property.

But their latest measure to thwart copyright infringement is nearly the digital equivalent of a schoolmate ratting you out for skipping class.

As Casey Chan of Gizmodo reports, record labels are using a student task force to seek out fellow students who illegally pirate music.

"EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner are funneling money to an anti-piracy group called proMedia whose sole purpose is to hunt down copyright infringements," reveals Chan. "The company, according to one anonymous employee who works there, employs around 35 students who crawl and comb through forums, blogs and file hosting sites to find people who pirate music."
The inside man, who TorrentFreak refers to only as 'Peter,' is a 26-year-old musician and student teacher. He has worked at proMedia's office in Hamburg, Germany, for the past four years.

Using students to hunt down their own may seem odd to some, but as Charlie Osborne of ZDNet explains, it makes perfect sense.

"Who best to hunt down prolific pirateers than those who arguably understand the technology involved more than other age groups?" asks Osborne. "Students. Known for their free exchange and grabbing of files protected by copyright law, from music to books and television shows, it does seem that often when one reads legislation drafted in order to try and combat the issue, a basic fundamental understanding of how you acquire such files online is lacking. (SOPA comes to mind)."

In addition to trolling Google to search blogs and forums, Peter and his peers engage in what TorrentFreak describes as "the most controversial anti-piracy work — tracking down file-sharers on P2P networks such as BitTorrent in order to extract cash settlements from them."

"According to Spiegel, the BVMI (Bundesverband Musikindustrie - The Federal Association of Music Industry in Germany) reports that it closed (read: settled or gave up on) 13,562 civil cases on behalf of the labels in 2008 alone (more recent data was not provided). As revealed by an earlier TorrentFreak investigation, there is big money to be made from these settlements. Universal, Warner and EMI look for around 1,200 euros per time, with Sony requesting around 950 euros."
As of now, this particular practice seems to have limited its reach to the borders of Europe. But similar penalties for copyright infringement could find their way across the pond in the coming months.

"The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), helped by all major Internet providers in the United States, will begin to warn and punish copyright infringers in the months to come," according to a TorrentFreak report.

"Those caught sharing copyright works will receive several warning messages and subsequent punishment if they continue to infringe. The parties agreed on a system through which copyright infringers are warned that their behavior is unacceptable. After five or six warnings ISPs may then take a variety of repressive measures."

Planned Volunteer-Informant Corps Elicits '1984' Fears
by Ellen Sorokin

As part of the country's war against terrorism, the Bush administration by next month wants to recruit a million letter carriers, utility workers and others whose jobs allow them access to private homes into a contingent of organized government informants

ProMedia... Anonymous, you know what to do.
On a serious note, I do agree that it certainly has Orwellian undertones. The scary thing is there are likely people out there who would jump at the chance do this. Some people love that power-trip. That's one of the less than desirable sides of human nature I guess.

Mrindigo wrote:
Point of order.

That's one of the less than desirable sides of capitalism.

Their 'nature' is being co-opted by a need for money by themselves and their masters.

True, but there always people who seem to get some form of satisfaction when screwing over others, capitalism or not. Capitalism just rewards that behavior. People like being rewarded, as it's a sign of social acceptance. Thus you have people emulating this behavior who may otherwise not act this way. They see the others doing it, and want that same recognition.

Mrindigo wrote:
Capitalism gives an abstract rather than direct reason for doing so.

I seek social rejection, in some ways, I assume it means I'm going against the flock! Seems to attract a better standard of peers. Contradiction?

“What's right isn't always popular. What's popular isn't always right.”

I seek social rejection, in some ways, I assume it means I'm going against the flock! Seems to attract a better standard of peers. Contradiction?

“What’s right isn’t always pop­u­lar. What’s pop­u­lar isn’t always right.”

True, but there always people who seem to get some form of satisfaction when screwing over others, capitalism or not.

Internet Eyes is an online monitoring solution, allowing our registered members to view live CCTV camera feeds from our Business Customers, and notify them the instant a crime is observed.

1. A reward fund of a minumum of £1000 pounds per month will be shared between most vigilant members who have made the best contribution to the prevention or detection of a crime.
2. A usage reward for time spent helping the community by monitoring live CCTV footage
3. A reward for recommending a friend

Andyh posted an excellent article on the Authority driven personality..

mikey mikey wrote:
Just so as we have it on this forum too...

https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Grab the pdf, download it and read at your leisure

It explains pretty much everything.