RIAA Announces Stepped-Up Piracy Program Aimed at Students
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sent 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to 13 universities each of which informs the school of a forthcoming copyright infringement lawsuit against a user of its network. The RIAA is asking the schools to forward its letters to the appropriate network user. Under this new approach, the student (or other network user) can settle the record company claims against him or her at a discounted rate before a lawsuit is ever filed. The initial wave of letters went out in the following quantities to Arizona State University (23 pre-settlement litigation letters), Marshall University (20), North Carolina State University (37), North Dakota State University (20), Northern Illinois University (28), Ohio University (50), Syracuse University (37), University of Massachusetts – Amherst (37), University of Nebraska – Lincoln (36), University of South Florida (31), University of Southern California (20), University of Tennessee – Knoxville (28), and University of Texas – Austin (33). The RIAA plans to pursue hundreds of similar enforcement actions against university network users each month. According to the RIAA, a survey by the Intellectual Property Institute at the University of Richmond’s School of Law found that more than half of college students download music and movies illegally.