RIAA Targets Piracy On Campus Network

In response to an emerging epidemic of music theft on a specialized, high-speed university computer network known as Internet2, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, files copyright infringement lawsuits against 405 students at 18 different colleges across the country.

Internet2 is an advanced network created by participating colleges and universities for important academic research.

Through the use of a file-sharing application known as "i2hub," however, Internet2 is increasingly becoming the network of choice for students seeking to steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale. Downloading from i2hub via Internet2 is extremely fast -- in most cases, less than five minutes for a movie or less than 20 seconds for a song. Students find i2hub especially appealing because they mistakenly believe their illegal file-sharing activities can't be detected in the closed environment of the Internet2 network.

"This next generation of the Internet is an extraordinarily exciting tool for researchers, technologists and many others with valuable legitimate uses," said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA.

More than two years ago, through the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, the RIAA and the entertainment community partnered with higher education leaders to address the issue of piracy on college campuses.

"Without question, the Joint Committee's efforts to respond to the issue of illegal P2P file sharing on campus networks continue to yield significant dividends," Sherman said.

The RIAA, in letters sent today, is asking university presidents to take action to stop illegal file sharing related to not only i2hub but also other university networks like the centralized piracy servers often set up by students on the college's local area network.

"We think that any policymaker or campus administrator would be outraged to learn that a special, high-speed Internet technology designed for academic research has been hijacked for illegal purposes," said Sherman.

A total of 405 lawsuits will be filed tomorrow against students at Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California - Berkeley, University of California - San Diego, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, University of Pittsburgh and University of Southern California.

While evidence of infringing activity on i2hub is extensive, the RIAA has chosen to limit the number of lawsuits to 25 per school at this time. In addition, the 405 lawsuits that will be filed tomorrow are against some of the most egregious abusers of Internet2 technology.

The average number of mp3 files shared by users sued in this round is more than 2,300, while the average number of total files is more than 3,900. Some users have shared as many as 13,600 mp3 files and as many as 72,700 total files (such as audio, software and video).