After a long period of relative quiet, the Recording Industry Association of America may once again pursue legal action against Rensselaer students. On September 20, the Institute was dealt with a set of subpoenas requiring Rensselaer to identify the individuals who were using certain IP addresses during specific time intervals. This action is a part of a larger campaign by the RIAA targeting individuals using file-sharing applications to distribute music files in violation of copyright.
According to Dean of Students Mark Smith, the subpoenas described 19 separate incidents of infraction relating to illegal file-sharing. He noted that the IP addresses specified were traced to five different individuals as well as one fraternity; the last one led to a wireless router and therefore a specific individual couldn’t be identified.
Smith said that the data requested ranged in dates from January 2007 to May 2007. The Division of the Chief Information Officer did not respond to The Poly’s inquiries about the details of the investigating process.
The Institute is planning to comply with the subpoenas in accordance with the law, but will wait as long as possible—the deadline is October 31—before doing so. The information that is turned over will only consist of the users’ respective names, addresses, and phone numbers (both on- and off-campus).
Other universities in similar situations have resisted giving up any information, but Smith said that RPI had no grounds to challenge the subpoenas and therefore will not try to block them. He added that the affected individuals will receive advice from the Institute regarding their options from here on out; in short, they can fight a lawsuit or try to settle out of court.
While the university will not recommend that the involved students take one particular course of action, Smith noted that those who choose to fight will be faced with a long, expensive battle with no guarantees of any monetary return in the end. The cost of settling may be significantly less than the legal fees that the individuals would incur if they took the suits to court.
This action by the RIAA is part of a much larger campaign to find and prosecute individuals using file-sharing applications to distribute music files in violation of copyright. While a significant number of these attacks have been targeted at colleges and college students across the country, there have also been numerous cases involving children, middle-aged adults, and the elderly.
Other colleges targeted by the RIAA around the same time included SUNY Morrisville, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, New Mexico State University, Eckerd College, the University of Minnesota, California State University—Monterey Bay, the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri—Rolla, the University of San Francisco, Case Western Reserve University, Northern Arizona University, San Francisco State University, the University of Tulsa, Franklin and Marshall College, Western Kentucky University, and Santa Clara University.
