At least two Georgetown University students are among the 532 people being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America in the latest round of lawsuits for copyright infringement.
A statement issued yesterday said that the university “is not aware of any lawsuit filed to date by RIAA against the IP address of any Georgetown student.” But according to sources, at least two students and possibly more have been notified by the university that they will be sued by the RIAA.
This new wave of lawsuits comes after a federal appeals court determined that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not allow subpoenas to be sent asking for Internet service providers to identify file-swappers without a judge’s consent.
Because the RIAA does not know the identity of the defendants, the RIAA has brought “John Doe” lawsuits against the defendants’ by identifying them through their Internet Protocol addresses. Only after the suit has been filed can the RIAA subpoena for the names of the defendants.
“Over the past few weeks, the RIAA has notified Georgetown of its intention to subpoena
information from the university relating to certain IP addresses,” Julie Green Bataille, assistant vice president for communications, said in issuing the university’s statement.
The university forwarded all notices to students when specified IP addresses could be matched to their names. Each was referred to the university’s Acceptable Use Policy.
The university also suggested that students “contact his or her own legal counsel with any questions. Students involved in personal litigation are represented by their own legal counsel.”
The RIAA continues to offer settlements to those accused of file-sharing but warns that ignorance is not an excuse for illegally downloading copyrighted material.
“Our enforcement program has been ongoing for many months and awareness that this activity is illegal has skyrocketed,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said in an industry press release. “Illegal file sharers cannot so easily claim ignorance now.”
And neither can the university. In a September interview, Ardoth Hassler, associate vice-president for UIS, said that on-campus Internet users are easily identified.
“It’s also important for students to be aware that they have a false sense of anonymity,” Hassler told THE HOYA. “Each student’s IP address connects them to Georgetown, to their building, to their room number. No one is anonymous.”
Moreover, according to yesterday’s press release, “Georgetown reviews all subpoenas served on the university and responds appropriately, consistent with our legal obligations.”
Despite the increasing number of lawsuits, Craig Wallace (MSB ’06) continues to download music from LimeWire, a program originally for Macs that is now available to PCs.
“I feel like so many people actually share their music and millions use the program that picking me out of the group because I download maybe two or three songs a week would be very difficult,” he said. “Besides, most [peer-to-peer] programs have an option which you can use to prevent sharing the music you have on your computer. So I feel, for better or worse, that if nobody is downloading off of me, it’ll be harder for them to track me.”
KazaaLite user Erin Reid (COL ’06) said she agrees with Wallace. The KazaaLite program also does not allow people to upload off of users.
“After hearing about the lawsuit, I would probably only decrease my use by about 5 percent. If I hear of more it would definitely decrease my desire to use Kazaa,” Reid said.
Both students believe that the more attention cases on campus get, the less downloading will occur on campus.
“If it gets to be more frequent that a student is in trouble I’m sure [use] will go down. It also depends on how many students are familiar with the student being sued. I think it is all a matter of proximity – the closer it feels to you the less you want to risk it,” Reid said.
Sherman believes that it is increased education that will decrease file sharing.
“Virtually every week we see evidence that the music community’s anti-piracy program is having its intended effect. Awareness and legal downloads are up, while many analysts are finding that file sharing is down,” Sherman said.
