Recording Industry Association of America Targets NC State University Students

The Recording Industry Association of America has been targeting people for copyright infringement for some time. Its latest target: university students. More specifically, the RIAA has begun to target North Carolina State University students.

The first group of NC State students were targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement on February 28. The RIAA sent letters to 37 students. These letters gave the students the option to settle for several thousand dollars. They did not mention a specific dollar amount. According to the Student Legal Service at N.C. State, 23 out of the 37 students who received letters chose not to settle initially.

One of the students (who wished to remain anonymous) who faced a copyright infringement lawsuit from the RIAA and decided to wait it out rather than settle stated "I just waited a couple of months until I got a call from the student lawyer, and she said that the lawyers actually went through with the subpoena, and they were going to get the names of the students, so at that point I just decided to settle." She chose to settle to avoid the chance of being sued for even more money.

Later this year, in June, the RIAA targeted another group of N.C. State students. This time they sent letters to 43 students. Out of this second group of students targeted by the RIAA, 38 chose not to settle initially. Thus far, the RIAA only has the IP addresses of the students charged with copyright infringement. On August 9^th, the RIAA notified the university of "John Doe" lawsuits which could possibly allow them to get the names and addresses of the students.

The university notified the students that they had the option to file a motion to quash, otherwise N.C. State must comply with a court order and submit the names and addresses of the students by September 11^th. According to the Student Legal Service, no student has yet filed such a motion due to the fact that it is most likely cheaper and easier to settle.

The RIAA has been targeting N.C. State University due to the fact that the university has one of the highest number of illegal downloading incidents throughout the nation. Student Lawyers at N.C. State claim it is likely that the RIAA will target more students at the university in the near future.

Many students are not aware of the severe consequences of downloading songs illegally from peer to peer programs such as LimeWire. Though millions of people in the United States are guilty of illegal downloading and file sharing, the RIAA targets college students heavily. It is rumored that the RIAA unfairly targets university students in order to make an example of them or get their message across to the public. In any case, thousands of dollars in settlements seem to be an unfair price in pay for downloading a few songs off the internet, especially when so many others are doing the very same thing.