By Brooks Boliek
I2hub, the superfast Internet service popular with college students, shut down Tuesday.
Logging onto i2hub.com
The service follows Grokster, which shut down after losing the Supreme Court case that decided P2P services could be held responsible for copyright theft that occurs on the services.
It was unclear whether i2hub entered into a settlement agreement like the one reached this month in the Grokster suit.
"We continue to be encouraged by the response of many of the illegal peer-to-peer sites to the Supreme Court's unanimous Grokster decision," an RIAA spokesperson said. "The message from the Court has been heard, and we look forward to working with services that will respect the laws protecting creators. Those who will not work with us will see what happens to them and their users."
The music and movie industries have filed more than 600 infringement lawsuits at 39 universities against users of the service, which travels on the high-speed university network known as Internet2.
CAMPUS CAMPAIGN
Coincidentally, the Motion Picture Association of America on Tuesday asked college students to make a film about the problem. The association is sponsoring a nationwide anti-piracy public service announcement contest for college students.
In a partnership with Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), an international nonprofit that mobilizes university students to create economic opportunities, the MPAA hopes that getting students to create PSAs will help convince them to eschew copyright piracy.
"The MPAA is committed to educating students, parents and all consumers to aggressively tackle the threat of piracy and stem the disturbing societal trend of illegal activity online by students of all ages," MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said. "That is why we have joined SIFE, partnering with some of our country's most creative, bright and energetic students to engage them in this discussion and enlist their help in the campaign on campuses."
The winner of the contest, open to students at colleges that have a SIFE chapter, could pocket $3,000.
Glickman estimates that U.S. copyright industries account for 12 percent of gross domestic product and employ more than 11 million workers. An interagency report last year estimated that counterfeit and pirated goods cost the U.S. economy $250 billion per year. Hard-goods piracy -- like DVDs -- cost the movie industry alone more than $3 billion per year.
That money often finds its way into other illegal activities. On November 10, a fatal car chase in Virginia involving a convicted felon who was wanted on several criminal charges, including cocaine and meth possession, yielded hundreds of pirated CDs and DVDs in the man's trunk, MPAA field investigator Dennis Supik said.
"A lot of people we were arresting had drug conviction backgrounds," Supik said. "Actually, what they said was: 'This is the new drug on the street."'
In 2003, Interpol Secretary General Ron Noble said in testimony before the House International Relations Committee that the global trade in narcotics is estimated at $322 billion, while the global trade in counterfeit goods is estimated at $512 billion.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
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