Recording industry sues IU students

An unspecified number of IU students who allegedly illegally shared files on peer-to-peer networks have been targeted in the latest wave of lawsuits levied by the Recording Industry Association of America. \nBut University officials emphasized that students -- not the University -- are the focus of the RIAA investigation. University Information Technology Services received word from the recording industry giant shortly before the suits were filed, Chief Information Technology Officer Mark Bruhn said Tuesday in a meeting with the Bloomington Faculty Council.\n"We received a courtesy notification from the RIAA, which is basically a heads-up from them letting us know that the subpoenas are on their way," Bruhn said. "IU is not the target. The individuals are the ones being targeted."\nRIAA officials said Internet service providers -- in this case, the University -- typically receive such notification.\n"In this case, with the colleges, we did give them a heads-up prior to filing these suits," said Amanda Collins, RIAA spokeswoman. \nTuesday's "John Doe" suits -- dubbed as such because the defendants' names aren't yet known -- cited 89 students at 21 universities across the country. Collins said the exact number of students involved at each institution has not yet been publicly released but noted IU was alerted its students were involved.\nIn such suits, RIAA investigators identify illegal activity by searching for copyrighted material shared by individuals, at that point only identifiable by an IP address, on P2P servers like www.KaZaa.com or www.Limewire.com. Lawsuits filed then identify the defendant as "John Doe" until the individual's identity can be obtained from the Internet service provider through subpoena. Once the ISP releases the user's name, the original motion is amended to reflect the change.\nIn the case of the University, incoming IU students are required to register personal computers and authenticate user names and passwords using IU as their Internet service provider. All students residing on campus, including those living in Greek housing, must complete this process to access the IU network from home. The RIAA and other copyright owner representatives thus obtain the IU network address when identifying students using the University server.\nJohn Doe suits began flooding dockets in January, when four courts agreed to issue subpoenas to Internet service providers to learn the identity of file sharers. The RIAA has been pursuing file sharers in various other legal channels since last fall.\nFile sharing at IU has encountered relative decline over the past year, however. Merri Beth Lavagnino, deputy Information Technology policy officer for UITS, told the Indiana Daily Student in January that the number of copyright infringement notices it received from RIAA had decreased by nearly 200 over the course of one calendar year, and a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project signaled this drop is indicative of a national trend.\nRIAA officials said the restitution involved in such cases is typically judged by the court trying the case. \n"We are obviously happy to discuss settlement options with anyone who'd like to come to the table, but we are asking for damages and for this activity to stop," Collins said. "There are a lot of legal ways for music fans to get music online nowadays. There's no excuse to steal it. This is illegal activity, and no one is above the law."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.