Author: Ben Dalgetty
Last week the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched a new wave of pre-lawsuit action against college campuses in their latest campaign against illegal downloading and file sharing. Oxy, in addition to 18 other schools, made the list with 19 students receiving pre-litigation letters.
The RIAA first began suing individual copyright infringers in 2003, and in early 2007 began its campaign against college campuses. According to an RIAA press release, “The legal process [of pre-litigation letters] gives students the opportunity to resolve copyright infringement claims (www.p2plawsuits.com) against them at a discounted rate before a formal lawsuit is filed.”
The letters to Oxy students request between $3,000 and $21,000 in order to prevent actual lawsuits from being filed. These letters offer discounted rates compared to actual RIAA lawsuits, which have requested $750 in damages per song shared, despite a court ruling that this number is questionable given that songs are sold at 70 cents per song online.
Though the pre-litigation letters reflect a discounted offer, the amount the RIAA is requesting places a large financial burden on students. One Oxy student, who asked to remain anonymous, is being charged $21,000 for copyright infringement and may no longer be able to attend this school due to the cost of settlement. “I would want to fight it, but I have no money—neither does my mom,” the student said.
“It just seems really unfair to target college students,” another anonymous student said. “This money isn’t going to the artist, it . . . [is going to] the lawyers and CEOs.” Other students who received settlement letters agreed. “Even if it is illegal, it just seems so unfair,” a third student said.
The RIAA maintains in their press release that music theft hurts the entire industry and costs “$12.5 billion in lost revenue and more than 71,000 jobs and $2 billion in wages to U.S. workers.” The RIAA is currently facing repercussions however, with one file sharer arguing that “[The RIAA is a] cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy.” Additionally, numerous prominent artists—including Radiohead, Madonna, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails—have openly critiqued the RIAA and are developing alternative distribution methods.
Occidental’s Information Technology Services (ITS) Department upholds a policy of full compliance with copyright holders and, according to a recent email, remains an “uninvolved third party.” This policy is similar to most institutions, although there are notable exceptions, including the University of North Dakota and Harvard University. The University of North Dakota is not complying with the RIAA’s requests because it only maintains logs of user IP addresses for 30 days. This means they cannot tell the RIAA which students were engaged in file sharing because they themselves do not know.
Harvard professors have taken a different approach and have openly challenged the RIAA. Charles Nesson, Harvard Law Professor and founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, expressed his support of students in an article for the Harvard Crimson. “[There is] no reason for a university to voluntarily assist the RIAA with its threatening and abusive tactics. Instead, we should be assisting our students both by explaining the law and by resisting the subpoenas that the RIAA serves upon us,” he wrote. Because of this article, Harvard has maintained temporary immunity from the lawsuits, despite a large file sharing population.
Oxy Vice President of Communications and Information Technology Pam McQuesten plans to respond with education on filesharing. “We are planning to increase the amount of education that we make available to students about copyright and the behavioral aspects of many peer-to-peer programs that can easily permit file sharing,” she said.
Occidental students who have received a settlement letter or copyright infringement notice are encouraged to contact the News Editors at the Weekly (lballesteros@oxy.edu or bdalgetty@oxy.edu) in order to be put in contact with other students for discussion of possible options or legal defenses.
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