The Recording Industry Association of America issued letters yesterday notifying the University that it intends to sue 23 of its students for alleged copyright infringement.

The notices, which the RIAA calls pre-litigation letters, offer students the opportunity to settle out of court before a lawsuit is filed.

The University has been targeted in the trade group's recent crackdown on college campus peer-to-peer file sharing.

On Feb. 28, the trade group, which represents most major record labels, announced it would target college campuses in an effort to stem the growth in online file sharing.

The RIAA said it plans to issue at least 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to students across the county per month. It sent 400 in February, 405 in March and 413 yesterday.

Last month, the University received over a dozen notices of alleged infringement - warnings to copyright-infringing IP addresses that the RIAA intended to issue a pre-settlement letter to them.

"We got a flood of notices," Jack Bernard, University assistant general counsel, said.

The notices identify University IP addresses, whose users the RIAA intends to sue on behalf of the companies it represents.

Federal copyright infringement penalties range from $750 to $150,000 per item.

However, these costs apply to any copyrighted item, like movies and books, not just music.

Paul Howell, Chief Information Technology Security Officer, said in an e-mail sent to University staff last month that prior student settlements with the RIAA have averaged between $4,000 and $4,500.

Bernard said yesterday morning he sent e-mails to students who had been identified by the RIAA earlier this year. He said yesterday afternoon that he intended to notify as many students as possible by the end of the day if their IP addresses had been issued pre-litigation letters.

Letters received in the morning were still being matched with IP addresses by a technician yesterday afternoon. Bernard said he didn't know if all the previously identified students received letters because the RIAA used different incident numbers than before.

"They've actually made a lot of work for us," Bernard said. "Inconveniencing us is no big deal to them."

Bernard said he does not know the terms of pre-litigation settlements, even though he has asked the RIAA for them.

Pre-litigation letters give students 20 days to contact the RIAA and begin the settlement process. Letter recipients do not have to settle, though.

"Just because the students are being offered the opportunity to settle doesn't mean they have to settle," Bernard said.

The University will not release students' names to the RIAA until the organization issues the University a valid subpoena for an IP address's identity, Bernard said.

Universities have the option of withholding pre-litigation letters from students, but Bernard said the University of Michigan believes students should be informed as soon as possible.

Bernard said most students who had received notices were unaware that they were file-sharing illegally. One student who received a notice, Bernard said, bought an online music downloading service that turned out to be a sham.

"It's just awful for the student who had no intention of doing anything unlawful and who is caught," he said.

Bernard is encouraging students to speak with an attorney and their parents about legal action. Student Legal Services has an attorney who deals with the RIAA lawsuits, and Bernard said he also refers students to a local attorney.

Legal Trouble

The top recipients of pre-litigation letters from the RIAA this month:

Ohio University: 50 letters
UMass-Amherst: 32 letters
Indiana University: 28 letters
U. of Maryland system: 25 letters
Central Michigan U.: 25 letters
U. of Mich.-Ann Arbor: 23 letters
U. of Rochester - 22 letters
Cornell U.: 19 letters
Keene State U.: 19 letters