The recording industry’s aggressive campaign to curtail
Internet file-sharing made its first inroads into the University
community this week.

Last night, in an e-mail to the student body, E. Royster Harper,
vice president for student affairs, announced that nine students
were recently identified for copyright infringement through
file-sharing.

The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents
record companies, issued subpoenas to the University for the
disclosure of these individual’s information. University
officials have already contacted the nine students, but their
information has not been released to RIAA or any other source, the
officials said.

The only way RIAA — or any outside source — can
determine what files an Internet user is sharing or storing is if
individuals allow these files to be uploaded from their hard
drives.

“Typically, our students are uploading files unbeknownst
to (the RIAA),” said University Assistant General Counsel
Jack Bernard, who specializes in intellectual property issues.

Many file-sharing programs are automatically configured to allow
files to be uploaded by other users. But even if this option is
shut off, updating a program — like Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus
or Limewire — can reset this feature.

Before the University can release a student’s information,
RIAA must overcome a number of legal barriers. University
administrators will evaluate the subpoenas to make sure they comply
with the laws, rules and regulations, most of which were set forth
by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

In addition, an appellate court case in December involving
Verizon Communications and RIAA banned the issuance of a subpoena
prior to a trial or suit. This case curtailed the industry’s
ability to solicit private information from Internet service
subscribers. These nine subpoenas, issued before this ruling, were
released in this fashion and may not be legally viable.

The RIAA searches for information being shared in violation of
copyright provisions by using a webcrawler — a simple
software that scours the Internet for specific information.

“What they’re doing is very easy to do. What the
RIAA is doing is sending out this software that searches the
Internet and IP addresses. They’re looking for storehouses of
mp3 files, of songs,” Bernard said.

Typically, copyrighted material means mp3’s, since the
recording industry has been the most vigilant opponent of file-
sharing.

But Bernard explained that most of the files shared through
these programs, such as movies and some documents, are
copyrighted.

“Any work that’s fixed in a tangible medium of
expression is copyright protected,” he said.

Some students may not be aware that mp3’s are the main
focus of those seeking to end file-sharing and that the size of the
file is of little significance.

“I don’t download that much stuff, and I only
download songs (mp3’s). I’m sure there are people who
download bigger files,” LSA senior Neil Patel said.

By sharing this material, students are also violating University
computing policy, University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said.

But the repercussions for these violations are educational,
rather than punitive, she said. Usually, students in violation are
notified and then informed. Rarely, if ever, will a student who is
alerted of his actions continue to violate this policy, she
said.

Many students, such as Engineering freshman Sue Shokoohi, use
programs like Kazaa in order to save money on CD’s. Because
she often deletes her songs, keeping the total number of files down
to around 20, Shokoohi is only “kind of worried” about
being contacted for copyright violation.

The RIAA, in the past, has successfully reached settlements in
the past with individuals in violation of copyrights. Settlements,
paid by those accused, can range from $1,000 to $17,000. They
focused on college campuses, which tend to be the bedrock for
online file-swapping.

There are “no immediate plans” to institute formal
and absolute restrictions on Internet traffic at this time,
Peterson said. Restricting Internet traffic could adversely affect
“legitimate research and scholarly activity.”

Though the University has received complaints of copyright
infringement before, these have not usually pertained to
file-sharing.

These incidents were usually settled between the University, the
student and, if necessary, the aggrieved party. Bernard said there
have been virtually no problems in the past with student compliance
in these areas.