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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: News
New RIAA letters threaten 31 Penn students
Pre-litigation letters offer chance to settle to alleged infringments
Jeremy Baron
The school year has barely started, but the Recording Industry Association of America hasn't wasted any time continuing its legal onslaught against students.
The organization sent its eighth round of pre-litigation letters to 403 college students this week, including 31 to Penn students.
Students receiving the letters are threatened with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement unless they choose to settle at a "discounted rate" - usually about $3,000.
In the third wave of letters sent by the RIAA in April, 17 Penn students were targeted. Of those, 11 chose to settle, while six had not done so as of early September.
RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said earlier this month that the organization plans to subpoena the University for names of the alleged infringers.
The RIAA will then give the students a final chance to settle before proceeding with a federal suit.
Twenty-four such suits were filed yesterday in federal court against students from a variety of schools, including Cornell and Syracuse universities.
Defendants will face minimum statutory damages of $750 for each copyrighted recording.
The University complied with the RIAA in the spring by matching IP addresses with alleged offenders and fowarding the letters, though it refused to disclose the names of students without a subpoena.
The RIAA had sent nearly 3,000 pre-litigation letters to date before this most recent wave, and Duckworth has said that this policy has "no set end date."
Other universities receiving letters from the RIAA this week include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with 30; University of Maryland, College Park, with 23; and Carnegie Mellon University, with 13.
The organization sent its eighth round of pre-litigation letters to 403 college students this week, including 31 to Penn students.
Students receiving the letters are threatened with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement unless they choose to settle at a "discounted rate" - usually about $3,000.
In the third wave of letters sent by the RIAA in April, 17 Penn students were targeted. Of those, 11 chose to settle, while six had not done so as of early September.
RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said earlier this month that the organization plans to subpoena the University for names of the alleged infringers.
The RIAA will then give the students a final chance to settle before proceeding with a federal suit.
Twenty-four such suits were filed yesterday in federal court against students from a variety of schools, including Cornell and Syracuse universities.
Defendants will face minimum statutory damages of $750 for each copyrighted recording.
The University complied with the RIAA in the spring by matching IP addresses with alleged offenders and fowarding the letters, though it refused to disclose the names of students without a subpoena.
The RIAA had sent nearly 3,000 pre-litigation letters to date before this most recent wave, and Duckworth has said that this policy has "no set end date."
Other universities receiving letters from the RIAA this week include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with 30; University of Maryland, College Park, with 23; and Carnegie Mellon University, with 13.
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