RIAA Sues Students

The music industry has taken its war against piracy into a new realm.

Having launched attacks against commercial pirates and issued warnings to colleges and private companies about copyright violations on their computer networks, the industry has fulfilled its promise to pursue individuals believed to be responsible for large-scale distribution of music recordings over the Internet.

On April 3, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed copyright-infringement lawsuits against four college students, accusing them of using their colleges' computer networks to distribute millions of copyrighted songs. The four students—two from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI), one from Princeton University, and one from Michigan Technological University (MTU)—allegedly used peer-to-peer platforms similar to Napster, the startup that was crushed by the weight of litigation brought against it by the RIAA. The lawsuits were filed in federal courts in New York, New Jersey, and Michigan.

"The court ruled that Napster was illegal and shut it down," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. "These systems are just as illegal and operate in just the same manner. And just like Napster, they hurt artists, musicians, songwriters, those who invest in their work, and the thousands of others who work to bring music to the public." Sherman didn't explain how the defendants' activities were uncovered.

The RIAA sent out a warning letter last year to approximately 2300 universities, asking for help in policing their computer networks for copyright violations. All schools have policies prohibiting the use of their networks for illegal purposes, but also lack the personnel to monitor them around the clock. Princeton spokeswoman Lauren Robinson-Brown said her school disabled the file-sharing site within a day of being notified. In a letter to Sherman, MTU president Curtis Tompkins said he was "very disappointed that the RIAA decided to take this action in this manner." He said that had his school been notified of the situation, it would have "shut off the student and not allowed the problem to grow to the size and scope that it is today." The MTU student allegedly had 650,000 music files available for downloading.

The four students, but not their academic institutions, are accused of offering more than one million copies of hit songs. The students might face maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement in addition to attorneys' fees. Perhaps the most well-publicized fact in the case, the potential financial consequences for big-time file sharers, may serve to dissuade some of them. That is the hope of the music industry, now in its third year of double-digit sales declines. The tactic may squelch some file sharing, but will also further alienate music lovers who resent the low value-to-price ratio they feel that CDs have come to represent.

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