The recording industry's lobbying group today sued three users of American University's computer network, accusing them of illegally sharing digital music files online.
The targets of the RIAA action were among a group of 761 people sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today as part of its ongoing legal campaign against Internet music piracy.
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Suits filed today in federal court in Washington, D.C., targeted three suspected file sharers whom RIAA investigators identified on American's network. University officials determined that two of the suspected music sharers were students. They are still trying to determine the identity of the third defendant, who could be anyone with access to the university's computer network, said American University spokesman David Taylor.
Taylor declined to name the students, but said that the school would give their names to RIAA lawyers. He said the students face several possible punishments, including being forced to attend an educational workshop on file sharing, losing their Internet service or being expelled.
As with other RIAA lawsuits, defendants are identified not by name but by the Internet addresses they used when they allegedly pirated the music.
The university was not named as a defendant in the lawsuits, Taylor said.
The RIAA targeted students at 12 universities across the country in this latest round of lawsuits, including students at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. The association has sued almost 7,000 people since it began its campaign in September 2003. Other suits targeted students at schools in Massachusetts, including Amherst College, Boston College, Boston University, Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts.
The RIAA can seek up to $150,000 in damages for each song illegally traded online. Most of the 1,300 defendants who have settled RIAA charges during the past year have paid an average of $3,000.
The round of suits unveiled today comes two days after the Motion Picture Association of America filed its first lawsuits against persons suspected of trading movie files illegally.
The RIAA sees its legal blitz as a proactive step to halt sagging sales largely attributed to Internet piracy. Compact disc sales plunged from $13.2 billion in 2000 to $11.2 billion in 2003, a period marked by the rampant growth of peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and eDonkey that allow users to download copyrighted music for free.
