RIAA asks for more names

by Pedro Oliveira Jr.

Monday, November 19, 2007 00:00

A U.S. district judge granted the Recording Industry Association of America a subpoena Thursday allowing the company to request information on 56 University of Wisconsin System students accused of illegally downloading music.

The subpoena, obtained by The Badger Herald, identifies 24 UW-Madison, 12 UW-Stout, eight UW-Stevens Point, eight UW-Milwaukee, three UW-Eau Claire and one UW-Whitewater students' IP addresses.

The document grants RIAA the right to request "documents that identify each Doe Defendant, including the name, current and permanent addresses and telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and Media Access Control addresses for each Defendant."

The subpoena may also seek all documents and electronically stored information relating to the assignment of any IP address that UW cannot link to a specific Doe Defendant.

UW Division of Information Technology communications manager Brian Rust said he had not heard of the subpoena yet, but at the end of last week, received three preservation notices requesting DoIT to keep records of students' IP addresses, which could have been "in anticipation to receiving subpoenas."

According to Rust, RIAA first sends UW prelitigation notices asking the institution to notify the students to remove the files they have downloaded. If the students don't follow up by deleting the files and responding to RIAA, the company proceeds to send settlement letters to the institution, which normally average $4,000 in fees.

"Those letters we refuse to pass along because it's not a legal document. There's absolutely no proof that [the students] have actually shared those files," he said. "The matter of fact of a subpoena is that the RIAA has to have proved to a judge that the people who are identified by these IP addresses have been engaged in illegally sharing music or other files."

Rust said upon receiving a request from RIAA supported by a subpoena, UW would follow the judge's decision.

"The RIAA will just say here are 56 IP addresses that are in your network, and here's an example of the music or the music that we know they have shared illegally," Rust said. "We want you to pass the attached settlement letter to them so they can avoid prosecution."