Students in RIAA lawsuits notified

The University informed 25 students Tuesday that they would face copyright infringement lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

In an email to targeted students, OIT policy adviser Rita Saltz said the University has until May 9 to comply with the RIAA's subpoena requesting the identities of the students being sued.

"You should assume that the University will comply with the subpoena on that date," Saltz said.

Saltz also said the RIAA would likely contact students about the possibility of reaching a settlement. "Counsel for the plaintiffs have informed the University that, after receiving the subpoenaed information, they will contact you directly prior to naming you publicly in the lawsuit in order to discuss the possibility of settling their claims against you," she wrote.

One targeted student, Chad Smith '08, said he has not yet sought legal counsel but plans to do so. He also said that while he plans to settle with the RIAA, he would not mind pursuing the matter in court.

"I'll probably end up [settling] because it's practical," he said. "But, in principle, if I had the time and money, I would love to pursue it."

Smith and 24 other students are accused of illegally swapping music on i2hub, a file-sharing program that runs on the Internet2 network available to 206 universities and affiliated institutions nationwide.

The 25 "John Doe" lawsuits — filed April 13 in New Jersey District Court — are part of the industry trade group's latest campaign against music piracy on college campuses.

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Collectively known as BMG Music et al. v. Does 1-25, the suits mention only a violating student's IP address. The RIAA has subpoenaed the University to officially obtain the identities behind the addresses.

The Daily Princetonian obtained the names of the targeted students through public Internet tools. A tool known as "reverse DNS lookup" allows Internet users to determine the network name of a computer identified by an IP address. That address typically corresponds with a student's NetID.

This process gives information only about the computer's registered owner, not about the person using the computer at the time of the alleged illegal activities.

Public Internet sites like dnsstuff.com allow users to find a DNS entry using an IP address. As of Wednesday, the DNS entries of the 405 college students recently sued by the RIAA were also posted on at least one website.

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Two of the students whose NetIDs were linked to IP addresses listed in the lawsuit — Chanel Lattimer '05 and Alexis Tingan '05 — said in emails that they are not among the 25 students being sued.

All of the other students declined comment or did not respond to emails this week.

Nationwide, the students targeted recently by the RIAA shared an average of 2,300 songs, industry president Cary Sherman said in a conference call last week.

Smith said he downloads songs infrequently, but put himself at risk for litigation by sharing his music with other students. "I think I was sharing everything I had, which was kind of stupid," he said. "If I had shared the bare minimum, I probably would have been fine."

Smith said when he informed his parents about the lawsuit, "they kind of laughed about it, told me I was a jackass."

While some students have expressed their sympathies to him, Smith said he is not extremely upset.

"It should make things pretty interesting for a little bit, and yeah, it'll cost a few bucks, but it's funny in an 'I'm an idiot' sort of way," he said. "I mean, who gets to go to court? There should be a Facebook group for students being sued."

"It's kind of exciting in a sucky sort of way," he added.