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Music Industry Trade Group Targets Colleges

Cracking down on college students, the music industry is sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year as it targets music illegally downloaded over campus computer networks.

A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1000 complaints accusing individual students since last fall ' significant increases over the past school year. For students who are caught, punishments vary from e-mail warnings to semester-long suspensions from classes.

The trade group for the largest music labels, the Recording Industry Association of America ('RIAA'), identified the 25 universities that received the most copyright complaints it sent so far this school year. The trade group long has pressured schools to act more aggressively against online pirates on campus.

The top five schools are Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. The RIAA complained about almost 15,000 students at those 25 universities, nearly triple the number for the previous school year.

At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst ' which received 897 complaints ' first- and second-time offenders receive escalating warnings about piracy. After a third complaint, the school unplugs a student's Internet connection and sends the case to a dean for additional punishment.

The music group said each university should set its own penalties for stealing songs and said campuses are rife with such thefts.

Under federal law, universities that receive complaints about students illegally distributing copyrighted songs generally must act to stop repeat offenders or else the schools can be sued. The entertainment industry typically can identify a s
tudent only by his or her numerical Internet address and must rely on the school to correlate that information to trace a person's real-world identity.

Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints. Others do not. Purdue, which has received 1068 complaints so far this year but only 37 in 2006, said it rarely even notifies students accused by the RIAA because it is too much trouble to track down alleged offenders. Purdue said its students are not repeat offenders.

In the case of Doe v. MySpace, Inc., et al. (1:06-cv-00983-SS), U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Judge Sam Sparks ruled last month that News Corp.'s MySpace was not liable for the sexual assault of a teenage girl committed by someone she met on the popular Internet social network.

Judge Sparks granted MySpace's motion to dismiss the charges of negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

The high profile suit was filed last year by the family of the Austin, TX, girl who was attacked by a 19-year-old man she met on the Web site.

The suit and reports of other victims of predators made the popular service a target of child protection advocates.

In dismissing the suit, Judge Sparks said that as an 'interactive service,' MySpace was protected from materials posted on its site by the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ('CDA'). Sparks explained that the CDA is aimed at allowing Internet and other interactive services to continue to develop.

'To ensure that Web site operators and other interactive computer services would not be crippled by lawsuits arising out of third party communications, the Act provides interactive computer services with immunity,' Sparks' ruling said.

Music Industry Trade Group Targets Colleges

Cracking down on college students, the music industry is sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year as it targets music illegally downloaded over campus computer networks.

A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1000 complaints accusing individual students since last fall ' significant increases over the past school year. For students who are caught, punishments vary from e-mail warnings to semester-long suspensions from classes.

The trade group for the largest music labels, the Recording Industry Association of America ('RIAA'), identified the 25 universities that received the most copyright complaints it sent so far this school year. The trade group long has pressured schools to act more aggressively against online pirates on campus.

The top five schools are Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. The RIAA complained about almost 15,000 students at those 25 universities, nearly triple the number for the previous school year.

At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst ' which received 897 complaints ' first- and second-time offenders receive escalating warnings about piracy. After a third complaint, the school unplugs a student's Internet connection and sends the case to a dean for additional punishment.

The music group said each university should set its own penalties for stealing songs and said campuses are rife with such thefts.

Under federal law, universities that receive complaints about students illegally distributing copyrighted songs generally must act to stop repeat offenders or else the schools can be sued. The entertainment industry typically can identify a s
tudent only by his or her numerical Internet address and must rely on the school to correlate that information to trace a person's real-world identity.

Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints. Others do not. Purdue, which has received 1068 complaints so far this year but only 37 in 2006, said it rarely even notifies students accused by the RIAA because it is too much trouble to track down alleged offenders. Purdue said its students are not repeat offenders.

In the case of Doe v. MySpace, Inc., et al. (1:06-cv-00983-SS), U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Judge Sam Sparks ruled last month that News Corp.'s MySpace was not liable for the sexual assault of a teenage girl committed by someone she met on the popular Internet social network.

Judge Sparks granted MySpace's motion to dismiss the charges of negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

The high profile suit was filed last year by the family of the Austin, TX, girl who was attacked by a 19-year-old man she met on the Web site.

The suit and reports of other victims of predators made the popular service a target of child protection advocates.

In dismissing the suit, Judge Sparks said that as an 'interactive service,' MySpace was protected from materials posted on its site by the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ('CDA'). Sparks explained that the CDA is aimed at allowing Internet and other interactive services to continue to develop.

'To ensure that Web site operators and other interactive computer services would not be crippled by lawsuits arising out of third party communications, the Act provides interactive computer services with immunity,' Sparks' ruling said.