An activity commonly associated with college – downloading music – is coming under increasing scrutiny from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Recently, a batch of letters were sent to students at multiple universities, Iowa State included, claiming they were infringing on copyrights by illegally downloading music on their computers.

Keith Bystrom, associate university counsel, said Iowa State has received letters from RIAA in the past, but the volume of the letters has increased as of late.

“We’ve had three or four batches of letters sent to us by the RIAA in the last year-and-a-half,” Bystrom, said. “This last group had about thirty letters, which is about double the size of the other batches.”

Each letter contains the IP and MAC addresses, which uniquely identify a computer on a network, of a computer found by the RIAA to have illegally downloaded music. After being notified, the university attempts to match the addresses with a student, then sends an e-mail with a copy of the initial letter from RIAA to the student along with advice to seek legal counsel.

Shanae Diewold, senior in graphic design, was one of the unsuspecting students to receive notification from the university.

“When I first got the e-mail, I almost trashed it because I thought it was spam,” Diewold said.

The communication Diewold received outlined her options.

“It said I had 20 days to go to this Web site made by the RIAA to settle the case or take the case to court,” she said.

The Web site, www.p2plawsuit.com, features a prominent link for settling current cases, which involves entering the case identification number included in the e-mail from the university. The Web site then informs the individual of the amount needed to settle on a case-by-case basis. Diewold’s case will cost $3,000 to settle.

“The guy who sent me the letter said the prices usually range from three to five thousand,” Diewold said.

Those who consider fighting the claim and taking the case all the way to court should be prepared for significant financial consequences if the ruling is not in their favor.

“There was a file-sharing case in Wisconsin where the student lost his trial and was ordered to pay more than $200,000,” Bystrom said. “It can be a big deal.”

Diewold’s letter detailed how she was caught.

“There’s an option in Limewire to share music that I forgot to uncheck,” she said.

“The investigators were then able to see my entire iTunes folder, and they took screenshots. They then got my IP address and went to Iowa State.”

The most recent batch of letters sent out by the RIAA is the largest so far.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 550 letters were sent out to 26 different universities. The University of Texas received 75 letters, topping the list. Iowa State received 32, the fifth highest.

Bystrom said that it is hard to gauge what the increase in numbers means.

“One student who got a letter only had 10 songs available for file-sharing. We can’t tell what particular activity catches the attention of the RIAA,” Bystrom said. “It’s like speeding. You assume the law will catch the fastest speeder, or the people who download the most. But that doesn’t happen all the time. “

For Diewold, however, that is not a very reassuring thought.

“I’m definitely going the safe route and telling my friends to do so,” she said.

“The RIAA is really putting more emphasis on catching students.”