RIAA Scare Tactics

Starting next week, UC Berkeley students will receive a stern warning from the university about the perils of music file sharing. They'll be warned they can lose their Internet access or get slapped with a costly copyright infringement lawsuit if they aren't careful about uploading and downloading files using programs like Kazaa. University of California officials sent a memo advising all chancellors to send a message to all campus communities. Stanford sent a similar message to faculty and students in May. According to most school officials, the RIAA is playing hard ball and the universities are warning students "for their own good."