Since Dan Peng '05 was saddled with a $15,000 settlement and lawyers' fees from his skirmish with the Recording Industry Association of America, he has been thinking creatively about how to pay the sum — and he is now using the website that originally got him in trouble to dig himself out of debt.
Peng has now made wake.princeton.edu — the site that formerly enabled file sharing — a virtual space for taking donations.
"I got a lot of emails from people that were just offering to help out and asking if there was some way they could donate," Peng said. "So I set up a Paypal account, and then as more people started sending money, I set up the website."
Peng's roommate, Siim Sikkut '05, sent an email to some friends encouraging them to consider donating to a fund.
"[F]or most of us, Dan is a good friend," Sikkut wrote in the email. "[W]e also were among the people using Wake to a smaller or greater extent. Therefore, I figured it to be fair if we helped him now — even a bit. However, it is perfectly fine if you feel that such a donation would be against your principles or if you do not want to donate the money for any other reason. I am just asking you to consider it."
"It's not an official campaign," Sikkut said of the email. "We're just a bunch of friends trying to make Dan's life easier."
The email was originally meant for a small circle, Sikkut said.
"I just sent it to our common friends, people who live nearby, the ones I know he goes to class with," he said.
But since then, the email has been forwarded by the original recipients to students all over campus, including the Quadrangle Club email list.
The money-raising itself has also been encouraging, Peng said.
"It's been going pretty well," he said. "I was surprised by how generous people were. I couldn't believe people were so willing to help out."
So far, Peng said he has received a few hundred dollars in donations, which he said "only starts to put a dent in the settlement."
The settlement, Peng admits readily, is far better than the $97.8 billion for which he may have been liable had the suit gone forward.
The donations thus far are made up mostly of small sums from many people, Peng said.
As far as paying for the settlement, Peng is on his own. When he learned of the settlement sum, he called his parents.
"They were definitely like, 'You're paying for the entire thing,'" he said.
Despite the settlement costs, Peng said he is just relieved the ordeal is over.
"Now I just have to come up with the money," he said.
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