It's harder to bully people out of their money if they've been educated on their rights.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Apparently, there's a new anti-RIAA force called the Digital Freedom Campaign.

With the DFU initiative, Digital Freedom wants to paint a bigger picture of copyright law for students, one that is not forthcoming from the movie and music industries. "The Digital Freedom University Initiative will fight to ensure that these thousands of college-age students, who represent future artists, innovators and consumers, fully understand their rights, and have a voice in the long- term solution."

In more good news, the RIAA has been thwarted in their attempts to seize a computer belonging to a relative of one of their lawsuit victims.

University of Nebraska

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

In the continuing saga, the U of N is now planning to charge the RIAA $11 for each threatening e-mail sent.

"We're spending taxpayer dollars tracking down RIAA problems," Weir said. "Are we an agent of the RIAA? Why aren't they paying us for this?"

And their response:

In response to NU's request, the RIAA's Engebretsen said, "It is neither practical nor appropriate for us to entertain a reimbursement request."

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Wisconsin may have refused to help the RIAA, but the U of N actually took it all the way:

If there were any doubt that the university is really irritated by the RIAA's requests, it has requested that the RIAA pay the university to reimburse its expenses from dealing with this

That's so awesome 😀

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

One of the victims of the RIAA's bullying who fought back won an important victory today. The judge on her case decided that the RIAA must proceed with a jury trial or declare her the victor in the suit (which would likely result in an award of attorney fees for her).

This is important because it may expedite further lawsuits making it more viable for regular people to resist their scam tactics and putting an end to the industry of settlements that the RIAA has created.