The recording industry will proceed with five lawsuits against University of Massachusetts students who declined to settle for illegally downloading and sharing copyrighted material, it announced last week.
After being subpoenaed by a federal district court, the UMass Office of Information and Technology (OIT) turned the names of the students over to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Students caught sharing copyrighted materials were informed through pre-litigation letters last week that the RIAA intended to sue them and were given the option to resolve the claim at a discounted rate.
The names of those individuals facing RIAA lawsuits have not been released to the public.
"We contact (students) via their UMass student e-mail address and via whatever phone numbers we have on record for them," said John Dubach, Chief Information Officer at UMass. "We are actually under no legal obligation to do this. Some universities have opted not to do so, but we thought it was in the best interest of the students to do so. However, some students did not pick up the pre-litigation offer information, either because they were ignoring our efforts to communicate with them or we had incorrect contact information for them."
Those who don't choose to settle, like the five who are now facing the copyright infringement lawsuits brought against them, must go to court.
With the high costs of lawyers and court fees, most students settle because they don't want to risk losing, said Charles DiMare, director of Student Legal Services at UMass.
"Say the lawyer tells you there's a 50 percent chance you could win," DiMare said. "There's also a 50 percent chance you could lose $10,000 or $20,000. On top of that, it may take five or six years until a final decision is reached."
DiMare said about 130 students have received pre-litigation letters for copyright infringement at UMass in the last three years. SLS has defended about 90 of those students.
"We give free legal advice and council," DiMare said. "Ninety percent of students who come into this office are represented here and (most of those) settle."
Violators who have chosen to settle their cases outside of court usually pay $3,000 to $4,000 for the early settlement option, DiMare said.
Amanda Mitchell, a junior public health major, said she disagrees with the RIAA lawsuits and OIT's role in the conviction of copyright infringement violators and admits illegally downloading music.
"I believe it's prominent enough in our culture to download music," Mitchell said. "I don't think they're losing enough money, and I don't think the university should make it a policy to hand out records of students when they know it will get them in trouble."
Whenever there is a subpoena for copyright infringement issue, OIT is initially given a list of IP addresses that have violated the law. They must then link those addresses to the names of the violators and hand them over to the RIAA to avoid more legal action against the university, Dubach said.
"In the early days of these copyright cases, a couple of universities went to court to object," Dubach said. "There were a few changes made to the process based on that, but the objections did not ultimately stand."
The lawsuits are in continuation of a deference campaign the RIAA launched earlier this year, specifically focusing on piracy at college campuses, said Steven Marks, Executive Vice President and General Council of RIAA.
"College students are some of today's biggest music fans, which is why the industry continues to invest resources to expand the legitimate online marketplace," Marks said. "Unfortunately, too many music fans are often lured by the offer of free, low-quality songs that can easily come bundled with damaging viruses and spyware from certain peer-to-peer sites."
Dubach has one simple word of advice for anyone considering illegally downloading music on campus:
"Don't."
Meagan Patton can be reached at mpatton@student.umass.edu
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