In an e-mail sent Thursday, ISU administrators warned students, faculty and staff about the dangers of file sharing and the possible legal consequences that could result.

The e-mail was written by Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance; Ben Allen, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs; and Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs.

“Our goal was to make the ISU community aware of this issue and activity, hopefully to prevent individuals from facing circumstances here,” Madden told the Daily in another e-mail.

The e-mail sent to the ISU community provided specific examples of lawsuits filed against students across the United States for illegally sharing copyrighted material.

“This summer, the [Recording Industry Association of America] began issuing subpoenas to colleges and universities to obtain the names of students who make music available to others over the Internet,” the e-mail stated. “This is the first step in bringing legal action to stop such copyright violations.”

Mike Bowman, assistant director of Academic Information Technologies, said he was not aware of any subpoenas issued at Iowa State.

“I suspect if [the RIAA] continues that program it is only a matter of time,” Bowman said. “If the RIAA continues subpoenaing those who are distributing material, our students could still be liable.”

The RIAA is not the only organization that may bring legal action against individuals illegally sharing copyrighted material.

ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said ISU Police has not made any charges against individuals for file sharing, but they are investigating several cases.

“I believe there are four or five cases under investigation where concerns about file sharing are at least part of the investigation,” Deisinger said.

He could not comment on specific cases but said ISU Police would first notice individuals who were sharing dozens to hundreds of gigabytes of material.

“That is not to say that we wouldn’t take enforcement action on smaller cases,” Deisinger said.

The e-mail sent to the ISU community stated the university has received notices of copyright infringement by individuals on the ISU campus.

“Generally when this occurs, the university requests that the individual involved cease the activity,” Madden said. “In some cases, individuals have been referred to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action.”

Deisinger and Bowman agreed the e-mail sent by ISU administrators provided helpful information for the ISU community.

“I would commend the vice president and the provost for taking that extra step to eliminate any ambiguity that might exist,” Deisinger said.