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."
