After months of covert downloading and mounting obstacles to free file-sharing, millions of online music lovers -- a large portion of the nation's college population included -- have been given yet another scare.
The Recording Industry Association of America filed 89 lawsuits against students suspected of illegal file-sharing at New York University, Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt and 16 other colleges.
The lawsuits against college students were part of a larger round of 532 lawsuits.
The RIAA used the "John Doe" litigation process to sue defendants whose names are not known. In this process, courts subpoena internet service providers to learn the names of the owners of computers associated with IP addresses that are sharing large amounts of music. The represented record companies send letters to the file-sharers offering to settle the matter. If the file-sharer rejects the settlement, litigation ensues.
"Lawsuits are an important part of the larger strategy to educate file sharers about the law, protect the rights of copyright owners and encourage music fans to turn to these legitimate services," said RIAA president Cary Sherman.
The RIAA's efforts to educate the public about file sharing seem to be working. According the RIAA's website, only 15 percent of the general population thinks that file sharing is legal. About half of those surveyed, including students, are supportive of the RIAA's efforts to crack down on file sharing.
The RIAA encourages file sharers to use legal music services like iTunes and mp3.com.
"Record companies clearly understand there is a huge demand for listening to music online," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy told The Dartmouth in a previous interview. "All anti-piracy work has the goal of trying to make legitimate online marketplaces as successful as possible. No business can be expected to compete against anything free."
Some colleges, like Pennsylvania State University, have realized how important easy access to music has become to college students and decided to cover the cost of downloading music. In a deal with Napster, Penn State agreed to provide music from an album of 500,000 songs to its students. The music would be free as long as students are attending the school, and students would be charged 99 cents per song if they wanted to keep it or burn it onto a CD.
According to Dartmouth's website, the College receives about 25 "take-down" notices from the recording industry and other music groups per month. These notices are forwarded to the owners of the computers involved, who usually comply with the notice.
Dartmouth actively suppresses public file sharing programs such as Kazaa. Most other schools, however, do not.
"Kazaa is ubiquitous. Everyone uses it," said Nixon Tan, a student at Colgate University.
In a previous lawsuit, four college students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Michigan Technological University and Princeton University were forced to pay $12,000 to $17,500 each in a settlement for running networks similar to Dartmouth's Direct-Connect.
The RIAA's choice of which of the myriad file sharers to bring lawsuits against has received considerable criticism for its arbitrary nature.
In previous rounds of litigation, those sued included an elderly Texas man who rarely uses his computer, a Yale University professor, an unemployed woman in New York and a 12-year-old girl in New York City, according to the Public Broadcasting System.
