RIAA suits still not received

With impending litigation threatening to send a stern message to IU file-sharers, the legitimacy of the Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuits has come under question.\nStudents, professors and Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and IU alumnus, all voiced their opinion regarding the issue, which arose when IU was among 21 universities targeted Tuesday in the latest wave of RIAA lawsuits.\nIU counsel Dorothy Frapwell said Thursday the University had still not yet received the subpoenas and didn't know when they would arrive. \nSome feel the RIAA's penalties are excessive or even unnecessary. \nSophomore David Crone said the music industry should be endorsing file sharing, not litigating it.\n"It's pretty ridiculous," Crone said. "I totally disagree with it. If I download something and I like it, I'm going to buy it. If I download something and I don't like it, I was never going to buy it. That simple."\nCuban shared similar sentiments Wednesday, saying IU's alliance with the recording industry is a reason the school has fallen out of his favor.\n"IU supports the RIAA," Cuban said, "and any organization that supports that organization is uncool with me."\nBut IU states it is doing everything it is required to do under the law, including stopping illegal file sharing, when first notified by the RIAA. IU law Professor Marshall Leaffer said the students are the ones to blame.\n"If students really want to avoid problems," Leaffer said, "they shouldn't do it. That's about as simple as you can make it."\nLeaffer pointed to the lax policy in the past concerning file sharing as the reason the activity took off, but he said not getting caught is not an excuse to break the law.\n"If they're doing an illegal act," he said, "they can get lucky and just not get caught. But if they are caught, the penalties can be serious."\nAnd the penalties have been serious in the past. The RIAA can sue file-sharers for as much as $150,000 per song and out-of-court settlements have averaged $3,000, said RIAA President Cary Sherman.\nWhile some find these penalties extreme, junior Sean Kellihan said the lawbreakers are getting what they deserve.\n"I would do the exact same thing if I were the RIAA," Kellihan said. "They've got the right to do that. Artists have the right to copyright music, and people who don't respect the copyright should have to pay."\nWhile the University Information Technology Services' file-sharing policy lists disabling the sharing option on file-sharing programs as the first step to avoiding copyright infringement, Leaffer said even that would not necessarily keep a student safe.\n"Just because they don't pursue someone who is downloading but not sharing doesn't make that action legal," Leaffer said. "Copyright law says stealing copyrighted material is illegal unless permission is granted by the owner."\nAlthough Cuban has taken his money away from the University, in part because of its coalescence with the RIAA, Crone places the blame away from IU and solely on the litigious artists.\n"IU has to take certain legal precautions, and I understand that," he said. "I just blame the recording industry."\nSports editor John Rodgers contributed to this story.\n-- Contact staff writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.