Students who download copyrighted music from Internet share sites should start considering other means to obtain those songs, according to the recording industry.
The Recording Industry Association of America launched a “data-gathering” campaign to identify copyright infringers on June 26.
The data will be the basis of thousands of lawsuits against people who illegally “share” substantial amounts of copyrighted music through the Internet.
“The law is clear and the message to those who are distributing substantial quantities of music online should be equally clear – this activity is illegal, you are not anonymous when you do it, and engaging in it can have real consequences,” said Cary Sherman, RIAA president, in a press release.
Some students on campus are worried about the possibility of being brought to court by the RIAA. The real names of students commenting in this article have been changed to keep them anonymous.
Brett, a chemistry graduate student, said he has taken the RIAA’s statement very seriously. He already has deleted his Kazaa, a music file sharing service, files and all downloaded songs in wake of the RIAA’s announcement.
“I don’t want to take any chances,” Brett said. “I have not used Kazza for the past week.”
Terry Doub, University network security manager, said there are no specific rules in place to prevent the downloading or uploading of any type of file on campus.
There are limits on the amount of bandwidth an individual can use.
Doub said when the University receives a legitimate complaint from the RIAA, other industry groups or copyright owners, Computing Services will investigate.
If anything is found to have happened with the machine, it will be taken off the University’s Internet network.
“If the machine belongs to a faculty [or] staff member, their supervisor will be notified to determine if this is a legitimate use of University resources,” Doub said. “If the machine belongs to a student, they will have to certify that they own the copyrighted materials or delete them. They will also be required to certify that they will not allow the copyrighted materials to be uploaded from their machine.”
Doub said if a second complaint is received against the same student, they will be referred to the Dean of Students’ office.
Some students do not view the downloading of copyrighted music as illegal.
Kimberly, a communication disorders junior, has downloaded music in the past and never felt like the act was illegal.
Kimberly said she will not stop downloading songs because the price of a new CD is too high.
“If they did not charge you $20 a CD then people would not do it so much,” Kimberly said.
While the RIAA is looking to take potential copyright infringers to court, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has other ideas for these people.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he is in favor of developing new technology that will send viruses to computers that download illegal copyright files, according to the Associated Press.
“If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that,” Hatch told the AP. “If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize” the seriousness of their actions, he said.
Alice, an electrical engineering graduate student, said she downloads songs almost daily and already has made 30 to 40 CDs from downloaded songs.
Alice said she knows it is illegal and plans to stop, but not because of the pending lawsuits.
“I have downloaded all the songs I need, so I think I am going to stop,” Alice said.
The first round of lawsuits could begin as soon as mid-August, according to the RIAA press release.
“Once we begin our evidence-gathering process, any individual computer user who continues to offer music illegally to millions of others will run the very real risk of facing legal action in the form of civil lawsuits that will cost violators thousands of dollars and potentially subject them to criminal prosecution,” Sherman said.
Doub said he is not shocked that the RIAA’s plan is to go after individual computer owners.
“Due to the amount of revenue lost by the recording industry over the last few years, it would not surprise me if they go after everyone involved,” Doub said.