Students frequently use illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing programs to get free songs, but some Dukies may now find their music collections costing them much more than if they had paid for them outright.
The Recording Industry Association of America mailed prelitigation letters to 35 Duke students May 2, telling them they either had to settle claims of copyright infringement out of court for a reduced sum or face a lawsuit.
Students who do not choose to settle within 20 days of receiving the notice will be sued for minimum damages of $750 per song.
The letters, which identified network users solely by IP address, were sent by the RIAA to Duke's Office of Information Technology. OIT then determined the students' identities and forwarded the notices via e-mail and land mail.
Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said the University considered refusing to identify the network users, but ultimately decided to forward the notices.
"We felt we had an obligation to inform students about these letters," said Trask. "Withholding the letters would do them a disservice."
The notices are part of a new RIAA enforcement program implemented in February to target music downloading on college campuses.
"The escalation in the volume of legal action initiated against university network users is in response to research indicating that the problem of music theft is particularly acute on college campuses," RIAA Director of Communications Jenni Engebretsen told The Chronicle.
According to the RIAA, more than half of college students download music and movies illegally. The RIAA's website cites a study conducted by market research firm NPD, which found that college students alone accounted for more than 1.3 billion illegal music downloads in 2006.
Engebretsen said that more than 500 students have settled since the enforcement program began.
Although the RIAA declined to provide average settlement amounts, offers typically range from $3,000 to $5,000, according to a mass e-mail sent in March by Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta.
Engebretsen explained that the prelitigation letters were different from Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation notices, which the RIAA also commonly sends to universities.
"With a DMCA notice, we ask the university to contact the user and request that they stop distributing the material, but we never know the user's identity," she said. "These prelitigation letters are notices of an impending lawsuit."
In May, five congressmen sent a survey to Duke-as well as 19 other universities receiving the highest number of illegal downloading notices -asking the University to outline internal policies regarding campus downloading.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee and co-author of the questionnaire sent to Duke. According to politicalmoneyline.com, which provides records of campaign contributions, Smith received more than $10,000 from the recording industry, including $7,500 from the RIAA's political action committee.
"Our student use policy does not allow illegal downloading, and we encourage students to avoid that activity, but I'm not a police officer," Trask said. "[The University] does not monitor network content, and we won't go in and look at network content except in extraordinary circumstances or when legally required."
University officials are currently planning their response to the survey in addition to the recent prelitigation notices, he said.
"Although the letter came from a congressional committee, it looked like the RIAA wrote it," Trask said.
Until May 2, Jordan Greene, Trinity '07, held the distinction of being the only Duke student who had received a prelitigation notice from the RIAA.
Greene, who was informed about the suit by Moneta in 2003, said the RIAA created a dummy account on Kazaa, one popular peer-to-peer program, to take screenshots of it downloading songs from his account.
Greene did not respond to the settlement offer and is currently facing a suit with damages of $750 for each of the six to 10 songs identified by the RIAA plus legal expenses.
"I'd rather go to jail than pay them," Greene said, adding that his outlook could change if the RIAA is able to garnish wages from future employment.
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