RIAA subpoenas target 39 students

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) plans to subpoena the University for information on alleged music piracy by 39 students — a number much higher than the previously reported 12.

University officials recently received notices from the association about the forthcoming subpoenas, though the University does not know when, or if, the subpoenas will actually be served, University spokesman Eric Quinones said in an email Sunday.

"We also received one such notice in January and have yet to receive the actual subpoena," Quinones said.

Quinones said several other universities had also recently received a high number of notices, but did not indicate which ones.

Columbia and Harvard each received one pre-subpoena notice recently from the RIAA, the Columbia Spectator and The Harvard Crimson reported earlier this month.

It is still unclear how the RIAA obtained information about the targeted students.

"We don't monitor students' computer activity and therefore don't know what networks may have been involved in any of the alleged acts or how the RIAA received its information," Quinones said.

An RIAA spokesperson could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

Some of the students targeted used a file-sharing program called i2hub, which is accessible to students at 206 colleges and affiliated institutions through the private Internet2 network. The RIAA previously targeted students using public file-sharing programs like KaZaa.

"I thought since [i2hub] was only restricted to university students that it would be safe," said Delwin Olivan '08, one of the students currently being targeted. "I just downloaded files like music and movies, and I just happened to have them stored on my hard drive. I wasn't advertising it or anything. It was just casual."

Programs like i2hub are so large that they can hardly be described as private, said Dan Peng '05, who was sued by the RIAA in 2003 for maintaining his file-sharing site, wake.princeton.edu. Peng settled out of court with the RIAA for $15,000.

"When you have that many schools, it's not really closed any more," he said. "One of the students lets his record industry friend use his account [and the privacy is compromised]. I've also heard speculation that you could have a mole in the inside, but I don't know about that."

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After being warned of the pending legal action, students are weighing their options.

"I'm not really sure which direction this is going in," Olivan said. "I thought this might just blow over, but it looks like it's not so I will probably have to seek legal counsel."

Olivan said he is considering challenging the association in court, though he may opt to settle for what he believes will be a sum of $3,000.

"I was going to try to figure out if what they were doing was legal because i2hub was only supposed to be for students," he said. "I think I might pursue it to avoid having to settle. If it's going to end up costing more, though, then I'm not going to pursue it. I'll just settle out of court."