College students have been prime targets of music industry lawyers because they are among the most prolific music downloaders.
"College students are some of most avid music fans. The music habits and customs they develop now are likely to stay with them for life," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement released today.
| | | | ___Tech Policy/Security E-letter___ Written by washingtonpost.com's tech policy team, the e-mail version of this weekly feature includes an original news article and links to policy and cyber-security stories from the previous week.
• Click Here for Free Sign-up
• Read E-letter Archive
| | | | | | |
|
Wendy Seltzer, a staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that lawsuits do not help stop file sharing.
"We absolutely think it's a bad idea," Seltzer said. "It doesn't take advantage of the possibilities that the technology offers. What people really want is a way to trade files legally."
The RIAA has not targeted colleges themselves. Rather, it collaborates with them on programs to teach students about the consequences of illegally copying music, movies and software.
Like many Washington, D.C.-area colleges in the area, American has stepped up its efforts to limit file sharing. School officials warn incoming freshmen against illegal downloading during summer orientation before the fall semester. The school also uses technology to curb the amount of illegal traffic on the network by limiting the bandwidth students have available for file transfers.
James Madison uses similar technology, but peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa try to find ways to allow their customers to evade the restrictions.
Georgetown University, George Washington University and the University of Virginia have Web pages that advise students of the law and their responsibilities online. Georgetown, George Mason University and the University of Maryland also send out letters to students warning against file sharing. Johns Hopkins University forces students to sign a form agreeing not to download pirated material.
Maryland takes students offline until they purge their computers of pirated material within 24 hours of being notified. The University of Virginia bounces second offenders off its network and forces them to pay $100 before they can get back online.
George Washington also offers students free subscriptions to Napster's 700,000-song online library.
