The Recording Industry Association of America has stepped up its anti-file sharing activities, making it riskier than ever to get free music.

In February, the RIAA announced it would begin sending pre-litigation letters to copyright violators, focusing efforts on universities.

The first of these letters have begun to reach ISU students. During Finals Week of the spring 2007 semester, 15 pre-litigation letters were sent to Iowa State.

The process used to distribute the letters is similar to that used for Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaints. After gathering information about an infringing user’s computer, the RIAA sends a letter containing this information to the user’s university.

The university is then required to identify the user and forward the letter to the student’s address. However, the university does not have to identify the user to the RIAA.

The letter contains information such as the user’s IP address, the time infringing files were found on their computer and a representative list of files that were found.

Each letter contains a notice that a subpoena is being sent to the university to obtain the student’s personal information in preparation for a lawsuit. Students are given the option to prevent this by settling early.

The settlement can be made within 20 days of receiving the letter by going to www.p2plawsuits.com and providing a case number from the pre-litigation letter. Paying in this manner maintains the student’s anonymity.

The typical settlement amount is $3,000, said Keith Bystrom, associate university legal counsel.

This option is almost always more attractive than proceeding with a lawsuit, as federal law mandates a minimum penalty of $750 per infringement. Sharing as few as four songs would cost more than the settling.

“If you go to court and lose, they want the students to realize they’ll be asking for a lot more money,” Bystrom said. “You can settle it early and remain anonymous.”

Most students will have difficulty paying even the relatively small settlement amount.

“I can’t imagine that anybody would have that budgeted,” Bystrom said. “You’d either have to get a loan, or you’d have to call Mom and Dad – however you can get it.”

Bystrom also said the RIAA offers payment plans for the settlements.

File sharing affects Iowa State as well – besides concerns over the misuse of bandwidth, there are costs associated with handling the complaints.

Bystrom said he thought the RIAA’s tactics were justified.

“They certainly have a huge problem on their hands,” he said. “And the tactics they’re using are definitely legal.”

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Enacted in 1998, the DMCA created the current complaint system copyright holders use to pursue filesharers.

“One of the issues under the DMCA is there are safe harbors that make ISPs [Internet service providers] not liable for actions of its users,” said Keith Bystrom, university legal counsel.

Rather than interact directly with infringing users, copyright holders file a complaint with the user’s ISP. This complaint must identify the infringement and provide enough information to identify the user.

Mike Bowman, director of information technology security and policies, said the ISP is required to “expeditiously act to remove” the infringing material from its network.

At Iowa State, once a complaint is received, the information is forwarded to the Office of Judicial Affairs. Students are then sent an e-mail directing them to remove all offending material from their computer. They have 48 hours to acknowledge this and complete a brief tutorial on copyright law. Failure to do so results in their Internet access being discontinued until they respond.

Further offenses result in stiffer penalties that can result in a formal charge of misuse of computers and longer periods of discontinued Internet access.

How they get you

While the RIAA is the most active organization in enforcing its copyrights, other organizations, most notably the Motion Picture Association of America and software companies, take steps as well.

“Essentially, they become members of the peer-to-peer network,” said Mike Bowman, director of information technology security and policies.

The prominence of peer-to-peer filesharing networks, such as BearShare, LimeWire and Morpheus, makes searching them the only really practical way for organizations to enforce their copyrights. Copyright holders usually hire independent organizations to search these networks for their copyrighted files. When they find them, they collect as much information about the sharing user as possible, including their IP address and what other files (only those copyrighted by their employer) they are hosting.