Although the Recording Industry Association of America has been the most aggressive industry group in prosecuting filesharing copyright infringement, several other organizations have ramped up their efforts over the past few years.
In addition to the RIAA lawsuits, UW-Madison has received 2,414 cease-and-desist notices asking users to remove filesharing content since August 1999, according to Division of Information Technology records. These have come from entities including the RIAA, NBC, HBO, and the Motion Picture Association of America, but only the RIAA has contacted the university with lawsuits.
UW students, as well as the general population, are at risk for litigation from other groups, however.
Since November 2004, the MPAA has brought several hundred lawsuits against vendors selling illegally copied DVDs, Web sites offering illicit movie downloads (including sites representing themselves as legal) and peer-to-peer network users sharing movie content, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Koltman.
The group pursues alleged infringers in a manner similar to the RIAA, with John Doe lawsuits and subpoenas against Internet service providers for IP addresses.
