Spring Break
The RIAA targets Brandeis students once again
The Recording Institute Association of America sent 12 pre-litigation letters to students for illegal downloading.
by Lital Shair
News | 1/15/08
Posted online at 4:45 AM EST on 1/15/08
The Recording Industry Institute of America sent 12 Brandeis students letters Dec. 8 charging them with illegal downloading and copyright infringement and offering them an option to pay a settlement fee before formal lawsuits are filed against them. This is the 11th wave of letters sent to University students since the initiative began.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act states that universities are not responsible for copyright infringements made by students and designates DMCA agents at universities to deal with complaints made by the RIAA.
Last spring, 15 Brandeis students received these prelitigation settlement letters from the RIAA. "We believe that 13 of the 15 students who received pre-litigation settlement letters settled. These students paid about $3000 each. The other two we don't know about," said Brandeis' DMCA Agent Elliot Kendall. However, Kendall said that "if they had gone to court we wouldn't have known about it," because both students and the RIAA want to keep the matter secret.
Since the RIAA only designates students by their Internet Provider numbers, it sends prelitigation settlement letters to Kendall, who then shares the letters with Chief Information Security Officer Dennis Devlin. They then match the IP address with the student and send the letters and students' names to the legal department, which then sends out letters to students.
"We don't reveal the identities of the individuals to the RIAA, we just forward it to the individuals," said Devlin.
According to Kendall, settlements tend to be $3,000 to $7,000. Each prelitigation settlement letter contains a list of songs or music illegally downloaded by the student and provides a link to the RIAA Web site, where the student can view and pay their settlement.
The letters sent to Brandeis were part of "a new wave of 396 prelitigation settlement letters to 22 universities nationwide as part of the ongoing campaign against online music theft," according to a Dec. 6 RIAA press release. The release also said that "The letters reflect evidence of significant abuse of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement."
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act states that universities are not responsible for copyright infringements made by students and designates DMCA agents at universities to deal with complaints made by the RIAA.
Last spring, 15 Brandeis students received these prelitigation settlement letters from the RIAA. "We believe that 13 of the 15 students who received pre-litigation settlement letters settled. These students paid about $3000 each. The other two we don't know about," said Brandeis' DMCA Agent Elliot Kendall. However, Kendall said that "if they had gone to court we wouldn't have known about it," because both students and the RIAA want to keep the matter secret.
Since the RIAA only designates students by their Internet Provider numbers, it sends prelitigation settlement letters to Kendall, who then shares the letters with Chief Information Security Officer Dennis Devlin. They then match the IP address with the student and send the letters and students' names to the legal department, which then sends out letters to students.
"We don't reveal the identities of the individuals to the RIAA, we just forward it to the individuals," said Devlin.
According to Kendall, settlements tend to be $3,000 to $7,000. Each prelitigation settlement letter contains a list of songs or music illegally downloaded by the student and provides a link to the RIAA Web site, where the student can view and pay their settlement.
The letters sent to Brandeis were part of "a new wave of 396 prelitigation settlement letters to 22 universities nationwide as part of the ongoing campaign against online music theft," according to a Dec. 6 RIAA press release. The release also said that "The letters reflect evidence of significant abuse of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement."
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