Spring Break
Students face uphill RIAA legal battle
RIAA fights music theft, MSU students fined for continuous illegal downloading
Aubra Whitten
Issue date: 1/15/08 Section: News
Mississippi State University was one of 22 schools that received pre-lawsuit letters from the Recording Industry Association of America in December.
According to an RIAA press release, the letters are the eleventh initiative in the RIAA's campaign against music theft on the Internet.
Out of the 396 December letters, MSU received 15.
Associate Dean of Students Thomas Bourgeois said this was the first time the university has received pre-settlement letters. Thirteen students received one letter and one student received two.
Security and compliance officer for Information Technology Services for MSU Tom Ritter said prior to the letters, the university received about 200 takedown notices between January and December 2007.
Takedown notices alert the school that someone has been downloading in large quantities using the school network, Bourgeois said.
When the school receives this notice, the individual's computer is quarantined, he said. In order to get network access restored, the individual must meet with Bourgeois and review the university's computer policies for using the school network.
Pre-settlement or pre-litigation letters notify an individual that he or she has been caught downloading illegally but allows the individual to settle the case early instead of proceeding to court.
In an e-mail sent out to the student body Dec. 6, Bourgeois said settling early could save students money.
"It is our understanding that the early settlement costs the students $3,000 to $7,000 altogether or $750 per file. If the cases proceed to court, the students could accumulate fines of up to $50,000 for each song," Bourgeois wrote.
He also wrote that the university could not be responsible for illegal file-sharing among students.
"MSU does not scan the network for illegal traffic in copyrighted material and cannot protect you from the legal recourse that exists for copyright holders, who do scan the network," Bourgeois wrote.
According to an RIAA press release, the letters are the eleventh initiative in the RIAA's campaign against music theft on the Internet.
Out of the 396 December letters, MSU received 15.
Associate Dean of Students Thomas Bourgeois said this was the first time the university has received pre-settlement letters. Thirteen students received one letter and one student received two.
Security and compliance officer for Information Technology Services for MSU Tom Ritter said prior to the letters, the university received about 200 takedown notices between January and December 2007.
Takedown notices alert the school that someone has been downloading in large quantities using the school network, Bourgeois said.
When the school receives this notice, the individual's computer is quarantined, he said. In order to get network access restored, the individual must meet with Bourgeois and review the university's computer policies for using the school network.
Pre-settlement or pre-litigation letters notify an individual that he or she has been caught downloading illegally but allows the individual to settle the case early instead of proceeding to court.
In an e-mail sent out to the student body Dec. 6, Bourgeois said settling early could save students money.
"It is our understanding that the early settlement costs the students $3,000 to $7,000 altogether or $750 per file. If the cases proceed to court, the students could accumulate fines of up to $50,000 for each song," Bourgeois wrote.
He also wrote that the university could not be responsible for illegal file-sharing among students.
"MSU does not scan the network for illegal traffic in copyrighted material and cannot protect you from the legal recourse that exists for copyright holders, who do scan the network," Bourgeois wrote.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Charlie
posted 1/15/08 @ 1:15 PM CST
Ritter said the university does not monitor what students download. The problem occurs when students illegally share copyrighted material that they have downloaded. (Continued…)
Mike Hawthorne
posted 1/19/08 @ 12:57 AM CST
Just about all sites (including the EFF) basically inform their readers that if you decide to download MP3's off the web (using whatever P2P program) that's fine, but you'd better not share a single file with anyone. (Continued…)
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