The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is continuing its legal campaign against file sharing. In late March, the trade organization launched a new salvo of lawsuits against 532 individuals and 21 university computer networks across the country—89 of the accused violators used school networks for downloading or sharing large numbers of copyrighted recordings. The RIAA claimed that the alleged violators shared an average of 837 songs.
The latest move is the first time the RIAA has gone after university networks, whose administrators have generally cooperated with investigators. Schools involved include some big-name institutions such as Georgetown University, the University of Michigan, and the University of California at Berkeley.
The names of the accused weren’t available at the time the lawsuits were announced. Instead, the RIAA had only numeric Internet addresses from which it was working to establish identities. Once that process is complete, music industry attorneys will seek damages against individuals or attempt to negotiate out-of-court settlements. The March lawsuits follow similar efforts in January (532 suits) and February (531 suits). As of March 29, the RIAA has filed approximately 2000 lawsuits against copyright violators and has settled with more than 400, with settlements averaging $3000.
[more @ www.stereophile.com]