40 IU students sued for downloads

Last April, sophomore David Lota received an e-mail from the Recording Industry Association of America stating he was being sued for copyright infringement, and he later had to pay $4,000 for illegally downloading music.\n“I definitely didn’t expect for it to happen,” Lota said. “I had to work all summer to help pay it off.”\nToward the end of February, the RIAA sent out about 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to students at 12 universities. Students at schools such as Purdue University and Ohio State University all received these letters – so did IU, where 40 students were sent pre-litigation settlement letters for illegally downloading music. The 40 students at IU represent all seven IU campuses.\n“The biggest problem students have is that they are not anonymous on the Internet,” said Merri Beth Lavagnino, chief information policy officer for University Information Technology Services at IU. “They are targeting universities and colleges. You are more likely to be caught through a university or college network.”\nThe problem is many students don’t realize they are downloading music illegally, Lavagnino said. They find a Web site offering free music, and they assume it’s legal.\n“If it’s free to download a song, be suspicious,” Lavagnino said. “It’s rare that it’s legal. Be suspicious if it’s free, because they have to pay rights for that music. It would be odd for them to give them out for free.”\nStudents may be aware that they are downloading music illegally, but unaware of the risks. Besides receiving pre-litigation letters, students also run the risk of downloading unsafe software.\nAlso, if students have a file containing legally downloaded music or a CD that is digitalized to the computer, they run the risk of sharing that file when they download other music, Lavagnino said. When a student \ndownloads more music onto their computer and uses the same file already containing music, that music will be shared online and students can get in trouble for sharing their current file.\n“You may not even know you are actively providing content for others,” Lavagnino said.\nWhen the RIAA sent the e-mail to Lota, they didn’t know his actual identity; they just knew the Internet protocol number for his computer and the time he illegally downloaded music. A letter was later forwarded to IU in which they identified Lota and sent him a letter. The letters make it clear that it is a formal step to a lawsuit, said an RIAA representative.\nOnce Lota received his letter, he said he was issued a subpoena where he was given the chance to pay a fine and he had to agree to not engage in illegal activity again.\n“I don’t download music anymore from Limewire,” Lota said. “I really love music, so I’m not going to stop listening to it. I haven’t been using any download services since. I use the streaming ones and I use CDs.”\nSites such as Limewire, Ares and BitTorrent are just a few of the sites the RIAA punishes for illegal downloading, said an RIAA representative. \nStudents can use services that allow them to stream music and listen to it for free such as Ruckus, Lavagnino said. Students can also visit filesharing.iu.edu for a list of legal alternatives to downloading. On this site, students can also go through a copyright tutorial and find out how to download music and movies legally. \n“I don’t think it makes sense to do illegal downloading,” Lavagnino said. “It’s 75 to 90 cents to download a song legally. If you purchase a song legally, it’s clean.”