Penn students who have illegally downloaded and shared songs on the Internet may eventually have to face the music, but not just yet, it seems.
The Recording Industry Association of America over the last year has filed a broad set of piracy lawsuits that target file sharers including college students nationwide.
Initially, and as is currently the case with Penn students, the suits only identify students by their computer's Internet protocol addresses.
In order to obtain the true identities of these students, the RIAA last March entered a motion for expedited discovery to an Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania. If the judge rules in the RIAA's favor, then Penn would be served with a subpoena and forced to divulge the names of the students.
According to Robert Terrell, an associate general counsel for Penn, the motion has been "dormant for months." He said that there is no explanation for this, adding, "It all depends on when the judge decides to rule on it."
In the event that the motion for expedited discovery is granted which has already happened in the case of another local university, Villanova then the RIAA would offer those students being sued a chance for settlement. According to Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the RIAA, 840 people nationwide have settled their cases, with the average penalty around $3,000.
As recently as Aug. 25, the RIAA announced a new batch of 744 lawsuits against students who shared files on a number of peer-to-peer music services, including eDonkey, Kazaa, Grokster and LimeWire. No students from Pennsylvania, however, were targeted in this set of suits.
The RIAA believes that its efforts in pursuing these lawsuits have helped to curb illegal downloading of music.
"Traffic on one of the largest peer-to-peer file-sharing systems is down, even with the exponential increase in bandwidth penetration," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a recent press release. "Awareness about the law, legal alternatives and the security and privacy risks of file-sharing systems has skyrocketed."
The RIAA press release also referenced as a sign of progress the fact that at the start of this school year, there are at least 20 schools that have joined into a partnership with a legal online music service, whereas last year no such agreements existed.
Overall, "the difference in digital music today and last year is night and day," Sherman said.
