R.I.A.A. Threatens 400 (More) Students Over Piracy

Continuing its outreach campaign to win the hearts and minds of America's youth, the Recording Industry Association of America has sent a new round of threatening letters to college students around the country over digital piracy.

The letters, sent on the anniversary of the R.I.A.A.'s most recent crackdown on music piracy, were mailed to more than 400 students and offer them "the opportunity to avoid a potential lawsuit by settling out of court for a reduced fee."

The R.I.A.A.'s online investigation unit busted the students by finding their internet protocol addresses on peer-to-peer networks including BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire, and Morpheus. Colleges targeted included Columbia, Tufts, University of Southern California, and Indiana University.

In the last year, the industry group has sent 5,400 of these letters to students at more than 150 schools and reached settlements with more than 2,300 them. It has filed formal lawsuits against 2,465 others, who did not respond.

Critics call the letters intimidation — and indeed, the stakes for college students are potentially high.

Last October, in the only case yet to go to trial, a Minnesota jury found Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, liable for copyright infringement. She was sentenced to $222,000 in penalties, or $9,250 for each of 24 songs she was accused of pirating.

At the time, the industry group said its crackdown on file sharing was designed to help create a legal marketplace for online music, a sentiment it echoed yesterday.

"The exponential growth of illicit peer-to-peer has stabilized and music lovers know what they can and can't do when getting music online," said R.I.A.A. spokeswoman Cara Duckworth. "This has fostered a climate that helps music companies earn a fair return so that they can invest in the next generation of artists and new bands can have a shot at realizing a dream."

College web piracy has been in the news recently after the Motion Picture Association of America — which is battling internet piracy alongside the R.I.A.A. — acknowledged that a botched study led it to use false numbers in arguing for the college crackdown before Congress.

The group said it significantly overstated the level of campus piracy.

by Sam Gustin