Downloaders to face lawsuit

After months of playing hardball with file-swappers and often targeting college-aged users, the Recording Industry Association of America offered an amnesty program Monday to Internet users who agree to stop illegally pirating music and movies and agree to delete all unauthorized files from their hard drives. \nUnder the new amnesty program, Internet users would sign a notarized affidavit promising to stop using file-sharing programs like Morpheus and Kazaa to download copyrighted material for free and to erase all material they may have acquired illegally. \nThe RIAA also filed 261 lawsuits Monday against heavy downloaders. Individuals already facing lawsuits will not be eligible for the amnesty program, and commercial file swappers will not be pardoned in the process either.\nMerribeth Lavagnino, deputy information technology policy officer for IU's University Information Technology Service, said she is not aware of any of those lawsuits affecting IU students right now.\nBut she said the student would be "absolutely liable" if he or she were pinpointed by the RIAA.\n"Disciplinary actions are already in place," Lavagnino said. "We already disconnect the student's network connection if they don't comply within 24 hours of notification and they are sent to the dean of students."\nLavagnino said these actions have been in place since the RIAA notified IU in January of last year that users were illegally sharing copyrighted material. UITS then sent e-mails to 177 students telling them to delete movie and music files or else face disciplinary actions.\nDespite this recent "amnesty" effort by the RIAA, some IU students still expressed distrust. \n"I wouldn't sign it," senior Michelle Vaught said. "I don't think it's anyone's business what's on my computer, and plus, I wouldn't want to give my name to them as someone who has downloaded in the past." \nSenior Cheresa Jonkman agreed and said she doubts the amnesty program will help the music industry stop illegal file-trading.\n"How many millions of college students are there in the U.S. anyway?" Jonkman said. "Do they really think they can prosecute every single one? I don't think anyone will want to sign it, either, because it would draw their attention to you as a person who illegally downloads."\nIU's Chief IT Security and Policy Officer Mark Bruhn advises anyone thinking about signing such an agreement to consult legal counsel first. \n"I'm sure some personal information would have to be provided, and that information will be kept by the RIAA for some period of time," Bruhn said in an e-mail. "But generally, students are adults and so are responsible for their own individual actions and transactions." \nThe RIAA has already issued more than 1,300 subpoenas to Internet service providers seeking the names of people illegally sharing copyrighted material. Copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song.\nThe RIAA is also continuing to seek subpoenas requesting that colleges reveal the names of students whose campus-network addresses have allegedly been used to pirate music online. Numerous universities, including IU, the University of California at Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Loyola Marymount University have already received subpoenas. Most colleges have so far complied with the RIAA's subpoenas. \nThe RIAA is banking on such cooperation from the universities. Although technology allows the RIAA to trace file-sharing activity to individual network addresses, the association must first obtain the names of the individuals using those connections from the operators of the networks -- in this case, the colleges. \n"The bottom-line is that sharing files without the copyright holder's explicit permission is illegal, and we don't permit illegal activities on our networks," Bruhn said. "So our position and our requirement is that students stop illegal file sharing regardless of what the RIAA does or might do. And we will continue to investigate every report of such an activity."\nIU and other Internet Service Providers can legally force their users to stop trading copyrighted material under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which students seem to have mixed reactions about. \n"IU is looking out for themselves -- they don't want to face a lawsuit," senior Justin Staublin said. "I wouldn't really blame them if they gave the RIAA people's user names." \nThe RIAA estimates that the music industry loses about $4.2 billion to piracy worldwide each year, according to its Web site. \nDespite its reported monetary loss, many said they think the music industry is overreacting to the file-sharing craze.\n"People have been taping songs off the radio for 20 years, and that didn't hurt the music industry, so I don't know why they're overreacting so much now," Vaught said.\nStaublin said he thinks it is unfair for the RIAA to target specific people when free downloading services are so readily available.\n"The RIAA is targeting the wrong people -- instead of going after their customers, they should look at the service providers," Staublin said. \nDeleting hundreds of beloved songs and movies might not seem like an appealing option, but given the RIAA's relentless pursuit of file-swappers in the past year, it might just be the only safe bet. \nIn June, for instance, four college students accused of making thousands of songs available online for illegal downloading were forced to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,500 each to the RIAA in federal lawsuits. In July, the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003 bill was proposed in Congress that would make downloading songs a felony. If the bill is passed, uploading a single file to a peer-to-peer network would land a person in prison for five years and impose a fine of $250,000. \nMore recently, the industry has been trying to enlist broader public support with a campaign intended to show that peer-to-peer networks are used not only to swap music files but pornographic images, including child pornography. \nRather than having the intended effects of scaring Internet users into compliance, however, the RIAA's tough stance seems to have angered many.\n"I think that's kind of an underhanded approach coming from an industry that uses sex to market its products so much." Staublin said. "The only reason the RIAA is trying to push this through Congress is so that they don't have to pay for the expensive lawsuits themselves. They want the government to start paying for it." \nVaught said the situation disgusts her. \n"I don't know why the recording industry would think it's fair to take $17,000 from a college student," she said. "That's just not right."\nSome music companies, such as the Sony Corporation, are planning their own music-downloading services to try to combat the free trading of songs in digital forms. For a nominal fee, users could legally download songs from the corporation's site. \nOthers, like Universal Music, plan to slash wholesale CD prices to revive lagging music sales, which have dropped 31 percent industrywide in the last three years.\nStaublin said he doubts the paid downloading sites will take off until all of the free services are discontinued. \n"It's just too easy to download music for free," he said. "Why would someone pay for a downloading service when the free option is still there?"\n-- Contact staff writer Andrea Minarcek at aminarce@indiana.edu.