http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22370-2003Apr3.htmlwashingtonpost.com
Record Industry Sues 4 Students Running File-Sharing Networks
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 3, 2003; 5:58 PM
In its ongoing, aggressive effort to stem Internet music piracy, the record industry filed suit today against four college students who run Napster-like file-sharing computer networks at three universities, including Princeton University.
The suits-filed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry lobby-ask three U.S. District Courts for injunctions to shut down the file-sharing systems that live inside the computer networks at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich., and the Ivy League school.
The four defendants were chosen because the RIAA found them to be among the most active, enabling thousands of songs to be freely shared, the industry group said. The music industry considers such file-sharing to be in violation of copyright and fair use laws.
The RIAA suits allege that these four students offered between 27,000 and 1 million songs for free trading. The Washington Post is seeking to reach the students for comment.
"This is a particularly flagrant way to illegally distribute millions of copyrighted works over the Internet," said RIAA President Cary Sherman, who has taken over the powerful lobbying group since past president Hilary Rosen announced her resignation earlier this year. "The people who run these Napster networks know full well what they are doing-operating a sophisticated network designed to enable widespread music thievery. The lawsuits we've filed represent an appropriate step given the seriousness of the offense."
The RIAA did not send cease-and-desist letters to the defendants before filing the suits. In addition to the injunctions, the RIAA may seek damages.
The RIAA employs software that scours the Internet looking for what it believes are illegally traded songs. But the networks named in the lawsuits are internal college networks, known as "local area networks" or LANS, and are not seen by the RIAA software.
Instead, the RIAA discovered them by reading college newspapers, in which the LANS are discussed. Several Princeton sites were listed in a November article in the Daily Princetonian, which also included a statement from the school's information technology department saying that it is against university regulations to use the Internet to violate copyright laws.
The music industry has blamed free peer-to-peer music file sharing for its current depression, as sales of compact discs have dropped dramatically over the past few years. Advocates of file-sharing say the music industry caused the creation of systems such as Napster-which was shut down in 2001 following legal action by the RIAA-by pricing some CDs near $20. Further, the music industry has been slow to adapt to the changing patterns of music consumers, many of whom want their music on an a la carte, or song-by-song basis, as opposed to buying an entire CD.
The music industry has fought back against file-sharing through the courts and by creating its own online music services, such as MusicNet and Pressplay, through which consumers can buy or rent music through their computers, some of which they can download and copy onto CDs.
The movie industry has employed similarly aggressive tactics to combat illegal copying and distribution of digitized movies over the Internet. The Motion Picture Association of America, the movie industry lobby, uses similar Internet software to find movie-sharing sites and sends hundreds of cease-and-desist letters a year. Further, the MPAA has sought injunctions against Web sites both in the U.S. and overseas.
