Considering that the fines could have amounted to $250,000, Jacob's $3,000 deal with the Recording Industry Association of America almost seems like a steal. But a few visits to sites like Napster and LimeWire still cost the sophomore more than he pays for a year of Duke education.
Struggling to come up with money he did not have, Jacob said his grades slipped and his social life nose-dived. He refused to let his parents bail him out, but he said he is convinced there is more the University could have done to help him cope with the consequences of his illegal music downloads.
"At first, I didn't tell [my parents]. I'm on heavy financial aid and most of the money that I have to spend is money that I have saved and I have made. I made sure the fine was from my money. My mom didn't do anything wrong, why should she have to pay for that?" Jacob said. "But Duke didn't help me one bit.... Duke doesn't get the picture that their students are their family. It shouldn't be how can we help Duke, it's how can we help our students."
Jacob is just one of 42 students who received pre-litigation letters from the RIAA last year, and even more students received letters during the 2006-2007 school year. All students' names in this story have been changed to protect their identities.
To get in touch with offenders, the RIAA sends letters to universities requesting names of students associated with the IP addresses tagged by the organization's online dragnet. The University passes on letters to the students in question but does not reveal student names unless a subpoena is issued, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta told The Chronicle in January.
After revising its protocol last January, the Dean of Students Office has updated its Web site to include more detailed information on RIAA litigation and made members of its staff available to advise students who have questions. But Moneta noted that the University remains unable to represent students or intervene in the process, and Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek wrote in an e-mail that the Office of Student Affairs has no plans to expand its support for students approached by the RIAA.
Although Moneta advised him to get a lawyer, Jacob said he was unable to afford one. Had he had access to an attorney, Jacob said he would have challenged the RIAA's suit.
Even so, Kip Frey, an adjunct professor at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy who specializes in intellectual property, said most Duke students facing these lawsuits have settled out of court for good reason. Going to trial is a high-stakes gamble-if convicted, students can be fined up to $750 per song illegally downloaded rather than the standard $3,000 out-of-court penalty. In addition, a settlement keeps a student's name off the legal record.
Isabelle, a junior, downloaded music illegally just once last year to round out a mixed tape that she was making for her boyfriend's birthday with two songs that were unavailable on iTunes. She is paying off her $4,000 debt by working as a freelance writing tutor, taking advantage of free food and social opportunities and participating in studies conducted by the Fuqua School of Business.
"I would rather myself get caught than someone who truly had no way to pay for their expenses," Isabelle wrote in an e-mail. "[But] to this day, I do not know why the RIAA singled me out to steal my hard-earned money. I'd like to see them try to pay their way through a Duke education."
Carl, a junior who illegally downloaded music habitually, decided to settle out of court after performing a cost-benefit analysis. But he said the choice was not easy.
"It didn't make any fiscal sense at all," he said. "But I wanted to fight [the charges] on principle."
Frey explained that Carl is not the only student to object to the RIAA suits on ethical grounds.
"Students just fundamentally believe that this ought not to be infringement," he said. "They're almost incredulous that this even could be considered wrong. They're very passionate about it, but I don't think that there's a lot of controversy in the law over whether it is infringement."
Controversy aside, Carl said he swears off sites like Napster and LimeWire when he is on campus but does not think twice about illegally downloading music when he is at home and feels safe from the RIAA's watchful eye.
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