Recording industry targets students with launch of anti-piracy program

By Erika Strebel

Obaid Sarvana, freshman in LAS, said he gave up downloading music and now listens to online radio.

“Everyone loves to listen to music,” he said. “So they’ll try to get it one way or another.”

The Recording Industry Association of America launched a new anti-piracy program targeting universities Wednesday. They launched a new Web site, http://www.p2plawsuits.com, and sent 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to 13 different universities.

“No matter how much we adapt, though, any new business model must always necessarily rely upon a respect for property rights,” said Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, in Wednesday’s press release. “That’s why we must continue to enforce our rights.”

Each letter informs the school of an impending copyright infringement lawsuit against one of its students or staff. The Recording Industry Association of America wants universities to forward those letters to the individual.

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However, the University was neither on that list, nor did it receive settlement letters Wednesday.

“We receive considerably fewer copyright violations than even the people at the bottom of their list,” Mike Corn, director of security services and information privacy for Campus Information Technology and Education Services (CITES), said.

Corn said that on average, the University receives approximately 12 copyright complaint letters a month from various music and video companies.

Most of the time, the complaint letters identify the copyrighted material, the point in time the violation occurred and the IP address of the computer that downloaded the copyrighted material.

Once a letter is received, CITES validates that a connection did occur at the time the letter specifies.

After validation, CITES takes the computer that downloaded the copyrighted material off the campus network. This means that the computer cannot connect to the Internet, Corn said.

“We take copyright violation very seriously here,” Corn said. “It is a crime.”

A notice via e-mail is then sent to the individual and a network information technology professional, who investigates whether the material is on the computer.

If the material is on the computer, it is erased. The incident is then reported to the Dean of Students and a judicial hearing takes place.

“I know a lot of people use LimeWire,” said Brian Gross, junior in ACES. ” There are a lot of people downloading albums and files off Torrent. That’s the main way people get all their stuff.”

Gross said most students know that what they are doing is wrong but the ease, convenience and cheapness of downloading music makes it seem harmless.

“It’s like speeding,” Deluca said. “You’re not supposed to do it, everyone does it, but it’s too hard to enforce it. So, you do it.”