New Wave of Illegal File Sharing Lawsuits Brought By RIAA

WASHINGTON - April 28, 2004 - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of its member companies, renewed its commitment to protecting the rights of copyright owners and deterring illegal file sharing, bringing a new round of copyright infringement cases today, including lawsuits against individuals at 14 additional universities.

Today’s action targeted 477 illegal file sharers, including 69 individuals using university networks to illegally distribute copyrighted sound recordings on unauthorized peer-to-peer services. The university networks used for this illegal activity include schools in Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington. As in earlier rounds of lawsuits, the RIAA is utilizing the “John Doe” litigation process, which is used to sue defendants whose names are not known.

Citing the ongoing effort to reach out to the university community on proactive solutions to the problem of illegal file sharing on college campuses, Cary Sherman, the RIAA’s President, said “it remains as important as ever that we continue to work with the university community in a way that is respectful of the law as well as university values. That is one of our top priorities and we believe our constructive outreach has been enormously productive so far. Along with offering students legitimate music services, campus-wide educational and technological initiatives are playing a critical role. But there is also a complementary need for enforcement by copyright owners against the serious offenders – to remind people that this activity is illegal.”

The continuing legal efforts are helping establish an environment where legitimate online music services can flourish and driving a growing awareness that downloading or “sharing” copyright music files without authorization is against the law. Soundscan recently reported that there have been 25 million legal downloads of songs through the first quarter of this year. MusicNet and Cflix on Tuesday announced a new partnership that offers students access to a legal online music alternative. And the Pew Internet & American Life project released findings recently that some six million former music downloaders have stopped the activity since the record companies commenced the legal campaign against illicit file sharing.

“Consumers, including college students, have access to a wide variety of legal music services that offer high-quality music online,” said Sherman. “Illegally downloading music from the Internet costs everyone – the musicians not getting compensated for their craft, the owners and employees of the thousands of record store that have been forced to close, legitimate online music services building their businesses, and consumers who play by the rules and purchase their music legally.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: The individuals included in today’s legal action were on the networks of the following universities (listed in alphabetical order of state or name): Brown University; Emory University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Gonzaga University; Mansfield University; Michigan State University; Princeton University; Sacred Heart University; Texas A & M University; Trinity College (Conn.); Trinity University (Tex.); University of Kansas; University of Minnesota; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members are the music labels that comprise the most vibrant record industry in the world. RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels; conduct consumer, industry and technical research; and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi- Platinum™ and Diamond sales awards as well as Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, an award celebrating Latin music sales.