Recording industry sends warning to UVa

From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: August 17, 2007

Seven computer users at the University of Virginia are facing the threat of legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing songs online, the association announced Friday.

The music industry trade group has sent a letter to UVa officials notifying them of the violations, and asking them to forward the warning letter to the responsible students, faculty or staff. The warning states that the users have 20 days to begin negotiations to settle for a "significantly reduced amount" or face a federal lawsuit.

If the RIAA were successful in such a suit, it would receive a minimum of $750 in damages for each copyrighted recording shared online, the letter states, and could receive substantially more.

"The music industry is transforming how it does business and embracing digital distribution models of every kind," said Steven Marks, executive vice president and general counsel for the RIAA. "For students, many of these high-quality digital music options are available at deeply discounted rates, or even free. Those who continue to ignore great, legal services and the law by stealing music online risk a federal lawsuit that could include thousands of dollars in penalties."

UVa is but one of 58 colleges and universities across the country, including Virginia Military Institute, that were sent warning letters this week. Since February, the RIAA has dispatched almost 3,000 settlement notices as part of its seventh wave of legal threats.

Carol Wood, UVa spokeswoman, said she was uncertain whether the university had received the association's correspondence and would look into the matter next week.

Because the RIAA tracked down the alleged UVa copyright offenders by their IP address - essentially, a computer's online identifier - it is up to university officials to identify the violators and forward them the lawsuit notice.

The recording industry has blamed online piracy for a perilous decline in music sales in recent years. CD sales were down 12.8 percent last year and 8 percent the year before, according to the RIAA.

The association's aggressive campaign to curb file sharing has spurred many colleges, including UVa, to increase their efforts to prevent copyright infringement. But some question the RIAA's approach, portraying it as bullying and ineffective. On its Web site, the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation calls the campaign "misguided" and suggests alternative approaches, including making file sharing legal.