RIAA Sends 4th Round of Pre-Lawsuit Notices
The RIAA isn't letting up on college and university campuses in its effort to clamp down on unauthorized P2P activity. Since revealing their new strategy in February of 2007, which emphasized the decision to utilize "pre-lawsuit" letters, three significant rounds of copyright enforcement have been attempted. Although similar with the RIAA's previous lawsuit strategy, this process allows the accused to settle at a discount rather than face the potential of a heftier fine.
While outwardly not considerably different than the RIAA's previous strategy, the main impact has been the reaction of the colleges and universities. Since the school is the student's ISP, the school must perform a majority of the footwork, i.e. tracking down the student via the IP address/time stamp. When the student is identified, the alleged pirate receives the "pre-lawsuit" letter.
The reaction from campuses has varied. Some have refused the RIAA, such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, while others, such as Ohio University, have severely curtailed P2P usage. Regardless of individual circumstances, the RIAA is continuing its enforcement unabated. In an announcement made today, the RIAA sent 402 pre-lawsuit letters to 13 schools. The following is a list of schools and letters received by each.
"Brandeis University (15 pre-litigation settlement letters), Duke University (35), Iowa State University (15), Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT (23), Northern Illinois University (50), Syracuse University (20), Tufts University (15), University of Georgia (19), University of Iowa (25), University of Southern California (50), University of South Florida (50), University of Tennessee (50), and the University of Texas - Austin (35)."
:source: Source: http://www.slyck.com/story1465.html
