The legal wheels are turning in the Recording Industry Association of America's most recent group of lawsuits against alleged illegal file sharers.
Among those in the process of being sued are users of the Penn network. Last week, the University received notification of the RIAA's complaint.
Suing anonymous file sharers involves a system known as the "John Doe" process. Individuals at Penn who have been sued are not yet aware of the situation.
"We would expect that Penn may well be getting a subpoena, but we have not received it yet," said Robert Terrell, an attorney from Penn's Office of General Counsel.
The RIAA has filed a motion for discovery in the Pennsylvania Federal District Court, which, if granted, would legally require Penn to hand over the names of students the organization has identified as illegal file sharers on the University's network.
Securing the motion could take "anywhere from roughly a day to a month," according to Jonathon Lamy, a spokesman for the RIAA. "The process varies by court."
If discovery is granted, the alleged offenders will be served within a certain period of time.
"Ordinarily, you have to serve the summons and complaint within 120 days of filing the complaint in the federal court system," Penn School of Law professor Amy Wax said. "How it's actually going to work in this case is unclear."
Lamy says that the RIAA is urging Internet service providers, such as PennNet, to alert a particular user when the ISP received notification that he or she has been subpoenaed.
Still, "at that point, a lawsuit has already been initiated," he said. The individuals cannot receive warnings that they are a potential target of a lawsuit until the suit has been officially lodged with the court.
The Office of the General Counsel is still unsure of exactly what will happen with the lawsuits once the individuals are revealed.
"At this point, all we know is that the complaint lists a number of [Internet protocol] addresses," Terrell said.
The RIAA has filed over 1,500 lawsuits to date, and 408 defendants have chosen to settle at an average of $3,000 per settlement.
"This is an ongoing program," Lamy said of the waves of lawsuits that have regularly occurred each month since January. He declined to give a specific date for the next round.
Other area universities included in the most recent complaint are Drexel and Villanova.
