Music Industry Continues Campaign Against Campus Internet Theft

WASHINGTON - October 26, 2005 - In an ongoing effort to combat Internet theft on university campuses and encourage students to turn to legal music services, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, today announced a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against 745 individuals, including computer network users at 17 colleges.

“Theft is theft and should be treated as such,” said RIAA President Cary Sherman. “When college students illegally download, they not only put themselves at risk for lawsuits but also put the next generation of music at risk as well. Our ability to invest in new bands and new music is seriously threatened by online theft.”

The “John Doe” lawsuits filed today cite individuals for illegally distributing copyrighted music on the Internet via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as Grokster, Kazaa and LimeWire. Lawsuits filed in this round against university network users target students using the file-sharing application i2hub to download and distribute music on the advanced network infrastructure of Internet2.

Today’s litigation marks the fourth time the music industry has taken action to combat theft on Internet2’s specialized, high-speed university computer network, for a total of 635 lawsuits at 39 campuses this year.

Included in this latest round of litigation are lawsuits against individuals at the following schools: Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California – Berkeley, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Southern California.

Last month, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held a hearing, where chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and ranking member Howard Berman (D-Cal.) said they will ask the Government Accountability Office to examine in detail why individual universities are having varying degrees of success combating piracy.

“Against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the Grokster case, students and university administrators alike have a heightened responsibility to respond to the problem at hand,” said Sherman. “Students have a responsibility to do the right thing and turn to legal sources of online music. University leaders have a responsibility to acknowledge campus piracy, to take steps to prevent the theft from occurring in the first place and to demonstrate leadership in teaching students that music has value and there are right and wrong ways to acquire it. When college administrators are more proactive in addressing the campus piracy problem, it usually means fewer incidences of illegal downloading on those school networks and less chance that students will get in trouble for breaking the law."

In addition to the “John Doe” lawsuits filed today, music companies filed lawsuits earlier this month against 81 named defendants. The names of these individuals, whose Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were previously identified in “John Doe” lawsuits, were subpoenaed from their respective Internet Service Providers (ISP).

These lawsuits against named defendants were filed in federal district courts in Hartford, Connecticut; Newnan and Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Urbana, Rock Island and Peoria, Illinois; Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Marquette, Michigan; Camden, Trenton and Newark, New Jersey; Brooklyn, White Plains, New York and Long Island, New York; Greenville, Columbia, Aiken and Charleston, South Carolina; and Austin, Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio and Midland, Texas.

#####

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.