Delwin Olivan '08 might be facing a multi-thousand dollar lawsuit, but he's going to have to wait a day or two to find out.
Olivan is one of 39 University students awaiting word of whether they are the latest targets of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its efforts to curtail file-sharing on college campuses across the country.
Tuesday's announcement that the RIAA is suing 25 University students is leaving targeted students wondering whether they should settle, and other file-sharers wondering if they are next.
"They're trying to get publicity and make an example out of some people," Olivan said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. "But college students aren't the ones they should be targeting since we don't have very much money in the first place. I think that's pretty underhanded."
Despite his indignation, Olivan said he understands where the music industry is coming from. "[The RIAA's approach] is pretty valid because file-sharing is getting pretty out of hand," he said.
Such is the irony of the latest battle in the ongoing war between the record industry and music file-sharers, where the issue is not so much the ubiquity or even legitimacy of illegal downloading as it is the tactics used by the RIAA to curb it.
In recent years, these tactics have included legal salvos directed at college students nationwide, nearly impossible-to-anticipate lawsuits intended to convince campus communities that no one can illegally download music and expect impunity. In its latest wave of litigation Wednesday, the RIAA filed lawsuits against 405 students at 18 universities.
"If every time you file-share, you have some risk of being hit with a $3,000 lawsuit, it's not worth it," said Dan Peng '05, who was sued by the RIAA in 2003 for maintaining the file-sharing site wake.princeton.edu and later settled with the industry for $15,000.
"The effect is more of a scare than anything else," Peng said, adding, "It worked for me."
The RIAA notified Princeton in late March that it planned to subpoena the information of 39 University students accused of copyright infringement. In a conference call on Tuesday, however, RIAA president Cary Sherman said that the RIAA would file lawsuits Wednesday against no more than 25 students at any one college.
These suits are called "John Doe" suits because they mention only the violating students' IP addresses. The RIAA must now wait for the court to issue a subpoena before it can approach the University and request the identities of the students in question.
At that point, facing a lawsuit, the 25 targeted students must settle with the music industry or challenge its charges in court.
New tactics
Sherman made it clear Tuesday that i2hub, thought by some to be private and insulated from the RIAA, will no longer be a safe zone for music piracy. The industry specifically targeted users of the program in this latest round of lawsuits.
"Students find i2hub especially appealing because they mistakenly believe that their illegal file-sharing activities can't be detected in the closed environment of the Internet2 network," he said.
Sherman refused to say how the RIAA obtained the incriminating data. "We don't give out that information, as you might imagine, because our investigative techniques might not be as effective if everyone knew exactly what they were," he said.
Both of the targeted students interviewed admitted to downloading music on i2hub, which often allows users to obtain a song in 20 seconds and a movie in mere minutes.
"i2hub was only supposed to be for students because you would have to be a university student at some campus in the [United States] to get access to the network," Olivan said. "I thought it would be safe."
A junior targeted by the RIAA, who asked not to be identified, said he only used the file-sharing program i2hub — which is available to students at 206 colleges through the Internet2 network — and did not know that he was susceptible to litigation.
"To be honest, I really didn't know I was at risk, and if I did know, I probably wouldn't have done it," he said. "I guess it's a bit late."
Lauren Kallens, a spokesperson for Internet2, the network on which i2hub runs, said the system allows educators and researchers to communicate in unprecedented ways — "a platform for what the Internet will look like in the future" — and that Internet2 has been working with university officials to educate students about its proper uses.
"We do not condone illegal use of our network," she said.
Though the recording industry had not previously gone after private networks like i2hub — focusing instead on public programs like KaZaa — and it is not clear how the RIAA obtained access to the students' information, Peng thinks it's unlikely that any foul play was involved.
"I'm sure students are unhappy about it, but I doubt [the RIAA] would have gone about it in a way that is actually illegal," he said. "If someone let their friend use their computer, there doesn't seem to be, on the surface at least, anything illegal about that. It's also questionable if you can expect to have any privacy on a network that has 206 schools."
Computer science professor and previous RIAA target Edward Felten agreed with this explanation. "I don't know whether i2hub actually does strongly lock out people," he said. "It seems likely that one of the institutions may have given permission to the record industry to access the net. There are many ways that they could have gotten the information without crossing an ethical line."
Felten, along with colleagues from Princeton and Rice, was threatened with a lawsuit from the RIAA in 2001 when he tried to publish a paper demonstrating how to defeat anticopying technology devised by the Secure Digital Music Initiative. Felten won the right to publish the paper.
Olivan said that he would like to look into the possibility of wrongdoing on the part of the RIAA, but is not optimistic. "What I've heard is that if they walked into a student's room and the student said, 'Sure, it's okay to use my computer,' it would be legal for them to access the student's computer," he said. "I think it might be perfectly legal. That's the problem with my argument."
To settle or to challenge
Peng knows as well as anyone the potential costs, both personal and financial, of waging a court battle with the RIAA. At the time he was being targeted for his Wake site, Peng faced what could have been more than a billion-dollar lawsuit. The suit against him alleged that he was responsible for thousands of copyright infringements, with the maximum penalty for each act set at $150,000.
"I would consult a lawyer and don't stress too much about it. It's probably just a few thousand dollars you'll be out at the end of the day," Peng said by way of advice for the 39 students currently in the RIAA's crosshairs.
Settlements typically run in the $3,000 range, Felten said.
The junior facing a potential lawsuit said he is not sure which direction to turn, but is leaning toward a settlement to avoid a costly trial. "I really have no idea what's going to happen," he said. "From what I've read, the legal fees were really expensive for taking them to court."
Clayton Marsh of the General Counsel's Office said the University will only provide students with a list of local attorneys. "We do not provide any legal representation for the individual," he said. "This remains a matter between the individual being sued and the record industry."
Olivan said that he likely will settle because of the costs associated with challenging the RIAA, but indicated that he would be receptive to an organization's offer to support him financially.
Annalee Newitz, spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a technological rights advocacy group, said the EFF would consider representing those with a legitimate defense against the charges.
"When you're guilty, though, there's not really a case there," Newitz said. "As much as we may feel the sue-your-fans business model is not appropriate, they are acting within the laws as written."
Why Princeton?
Though Princeton students have been targeted by the RIAA in the past, this recent spate of 25 lawsuits represents the industry's largest attack on the University.
Copyright suits were also filed Wednesday against students at 17 other colleges around the country, including Columbia, NYU, Harvard, USC, Boston University and MIT.
Many colleges, however, did not receive any lawsuits, sparking some speculation that the industry has it sights set on certain universities.
It is unlikely that the industry has a vendetta against Princeton or other targeted colleges, Newitz said. "I don't think there is really a strategy," she said. "I think it would be hard to ascribe any rationale to it. It may just be that these were the people they caught this round."
Marsh said that the Office of the General Counsel will review the subpoena when it arrives to determine "if there is some reasonable basis for challenging it."
"In the past, we've reviewed the RIAA's subpoenas and have found them to be legally enforceable and we have therefore complied according," he said. "We've always informed the individuals whose personal information is going to be disclosed so they also have a chance to challenge the subpoenas."
Reaction from the University
It might be the least of their worries right now, but the 39 students originally targeted by the RIAA will also likely face disciplinary measures from the University.
For the first violation of the University's file-sharing policies, students receive a dean's warning, while for the second violation or in the case of an egregious violation, the sanction is typically six months' disciplinary probation. A dean's warning is not recorded on a student's permanent record.
"Because the file is not a tangible object, perhaps students don't perceive it as property, and I'm afraid some are learning the hard way that in the eyes of the recording industry and the law, it is," Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Hilary Herbold said in an email last week.
RIAA president Sherman called on universities to do more to address the problem of file-sharing. "There are steps that universities can take, technologically, educationally, enforcement-wise, and of course offering legitimate alternatives to students so they don't have to get their music illegally," he said Tuesday.
Herbold conceded that students are likely more worried about the RIAA's penalties than the University's "because responding to a lawsuit brings difficulty, expense and processes that may be somewhat more intimidating than speaking with a dean or director of students."
But she added that the University takes music piracy seriously and has tried in many ways to educate students about the risks of illegal file-sharing.
"Each of the residential colleges has offered programs on this issue, featuring members of OIT, our own legal counsel, and in some colleges also representatives from the recording industry," she said. "The deans and directors of studies also talk about it in their address to the freshmen each fall."
Still, Herbold is not sure how much of the information gets through to students. "It's hard to say whether students appreciate the legal risks of file sharing," she said. "Perhaps there's a perception that 'it's out there, why shouldn't I download (or share) it?' "
Repercussions
The effectiveness of the RIAA's targeted actions remains to be seen.
"I'm sure that scare tactics will have some effect," the junior targeted by the RIAA said. "The more that they sue people, the more other people will be afraid. There's got to be a more effective way of doing it, though."
Olivan shared this viewpoint. "[The RIAA] should pursue ways to shut down the networks. If they're pursuing individuals, they're going to get marginal benefits."
Felten was less certain about the possible repercussions of the RIAA's actions. "It's a question about students' attitudes," he said. "But there is some indication that students are paying more attention to this issue because of the stories they're reading."
There's no question, though, that the issue has hit home for the students targeted by the RIAA, 39 individuals who now can only wait, hope and plan.
"I guess that what I was doing was mildly illegal, but there [are] so many f-cking people doing it," said the targeted junior, who claims to have downloaded not more than a couple songs a month. "I guess it is sort of fair, but $3,000 seems to be a lot to pay for a couple songs."
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