IU student sued for file-sharing

An IU student could end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the copyrighted music he or she shared with other university students across the country. The person, who is yet to be identified, is one of 91 students at 33 universities whom the Recording Industry Association of America announced May 26 it was suing for illegal file-sharing over the high-speed educational network known as Internet2. \n"As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions," said RIAA President Cary Sherman in a press release.\nThe RIAA did not actually know the name of the student when they filed the suit, but identified him or her through the student's Internet Protocol address. They also determined that IU was hosting the student on its network. In order to find who the student is, they must issue a subpoena to the University, legally ordering IU to turn over the name, address and other personal information of the individual who is registered to the IP address. Such lawsuits are termed "John Doe" suits.\nIU has not yet received the subpoena, but expects to comply with the order after University legal counsel reviews it, said Merri Beth Lavagnino, the deputy information technology policy officer for University Information Technology Services in an e-mail.\nA record provided to the U.S. District Court by the RIAA lists hundreds of copyrighted songs which the student is accused of sharing, including songs from artists Nelly, Kenny Chesney, Lil Wayne and 50 Cent. But according to court documents, record industry attorneys said he was caught sharing thousands of files. \nDuring an April 13 online news conference, Sherman said the court can award up to $750 per song in damages to the record industries, though they usually don't collect that much.\n"We routinely settle these cases at far less -- on average in the $3,500 to $4,500 range -- for those who work with us to resolve these cases quickly," he said.\nThe RIAA is heralding the two newest waves of lawsuits as a crackdown on file-sharing over Internet2. An RIAA press release called Internet2 "...increasingly the network of choice for students seeking to steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale."\nIndeed, the file-sharing application i2hub was designed to specifically make use of the much faster Internet2 lines connecting universities. But, students who share files with people on other campuses connected by Internet2 must use the educational network, said Lavagnino.\n"A user of the IU network doesn't get to choose what network their communications will travel over," she said.\nIn March 2004, the RIAA announced that it was suing five IU students for copyright infringement. By July, three of the students had settled the suits for an average of $3,000 each. Lavagnino said that UITS has turned over the names of seven IU students to copyright holders since 1998.