RIAA demands names of students who illegally download music files

For the first time in UA history, the recording industry has subpoenaed the university for the names of students who illegally download music.

The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it had issued subpoenas to 21 universities and 89 individuals.

Although the John Doe lawsuits ÷ so-named because of the unknown identities of the defendants ÷ do not involve the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the subpoenas will be sent to the UA's attorneys' office, where attorneys will review the subpoenas' validity and determine whether to comply. It is up to the UA to find the identities of the illegal file sharers.

"The lawsuits shouldn't affect the university, unless the university is named," said Ted Frohling, assistant director of the Center for Computing and Information Technology.

The UA has yet to receive the subpoenas, but officials said they will be arriving within weeks, after a federal judge approves them.

If the UA decides to comply, the attorneys' office will request information from the Center for Computing and Information Technology to help locate the owners of the computers used under the IP addresses RIAA lists on its subpoenas.

Cary Sherman, president of RIAA, said in an online press conference that college students are a big part of the music piracy problem, so it was only a matter of time before university users would be named defendants.

Sherman said the recording industry wants to send a message to students across the country that downloading and sharing music is illegal and can have consequences.

Regional development freshman Brett Bohannon said he doesn't think it is fair for the recording industry to target students.

"I don't like it one bit because I feel that since these programs are available to students to download music, the people at the programs like Kazaa should be in lawsuits with the music industry, not students," Bohannon said.

RIAA has taken legal action against 532 individuals; 89 have used university networks to illegally distribute and download copyrighted music through peer-to-peer services. The 532 users uploaded an average of 837 songs.

RIAA has settled each case for an average of $3,000.

Sally Jackson, chief information officer at the UA, said she hopes the lawsuits will raise awareness that property rights should be respected.

"We have been trying to promote acceptable use of the network and to inform people that using the network to infringe copyright is not acceptable," Jackson said.

Although universities like the UA have taken steps to prevent abuse of the network, Sherman said the recording industry still suffers because music sales have dropped by one-third. Sherman pointed out that 60 to 70 percent of university networks have been consumed by file sharing.

Even though the university has not taken any direct steps to stop illegal file sharing, it does have measures to make it difficult for students to download music, Frohling said.

Frohling said the university network tracks patterns of activity, and slows down when there is high peer-to-peer traffic. He said the network slows down to discourage people from file sharing.

Frohling also said officials from Residence Life have warned students against sharing files when officials notice them using up too much bandwidth.

Kalinda Lisy, astronomy freshman, said she doesn't think those measures will stop students from downloading music.

"Even if they catch students, the students will probably just find another way of getting their music for free."

Other universities receiving subpoenas include the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; Georgetown University; Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan.