The University of Maine’s Law Clinic plans to tackle the RIAA on behalf of its students. This is a first in the long onslaught recently perpetrated by the RIAA against college students everywhere. With this unprecedented show of support, the University of Maine is making history.

Most universities have taken the more hands-off stance of letting the students know they have options or refusing to deliver the RIAA’s thug-tactic letters to them on the RIAA’s behalf. A handful have taken the low road and actually tossed the kids to the wolves, like University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The charge is being led not by the professors and lawyers of the University of Maine, but by the students who are part of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic associated with the school. Hanna Ames and Lisa Chmelecki are the names of the two courageous students taking up the charge, soon to be household names in the fight for fair use of media. The students are not completely alone - they are being given guidance and assistance from their professor, Deirdre Smith, who also runs the clinic.

The students being represented by the clinic are going to be joining forces with eight other plaintiffs from the Portland, Maine area who are already being represented by a local law firm. This could spark a nationwide movement in colleges everywhere, as students band together to fight for a common cause by way of multiple clinic based law suits.

The power of a united front of college students across the country may be just what the fight for fair use needs to bring the RIAA thugs to their knees. This could have ramifications not just in the music industry, but in the fight for fair use with the MPAA and other media behemoths. This is definitely one to watch over the coming months.

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