The names of the six Penn students who have been sued by the recording industry might be public knowledge by the end of the week, allowing for the possibility of continuing litigation.
Friday marks the end of the three-week grace period for the anonymous students involved in a file-sharing lawsuit brought on by the Recording Industry Association of America earlier this year.
Like other anonymous "John Doe" cases brought by the recording industry in past months, the Internet service provider -- Penn, in this case -- was subpoenaed to reveal the names of file-sharing individuals who have only so far been identified by their computer's Internet protocol number.
However, an October ruling in Pennsylvania Eastern District Court affords additional privacy rights to these as well as future defendants. The ruling forces the ISP to provide the defendants with information on their rights and legal resources, and give the individuals 21 days in which to respond to copyright infringement charges before their names are turned over to the plaintiff's lawyers.
After the grace period, Penn will have to turn over each alleged violator's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and Media Access Control address -- which uniquely identifies the computer on a network -- to the RIAA, which may then file a "named defendant" lawsuit.
The RIAA has already filed 213 such suits since October, involving "individuals who were already identified through the legal process and then declined or ignored an RIAA overture to settle the case before it proceeded any further," according to the RIAA.
The coming deadline does not mean that the names of the defendants will necessarily be revealed. If the students file a motion to quash the subpoena before the grace period is over, they may remain anonymous while the motion is pending.
"The University is trying to work with the subpoena to the best of our ability," Penn spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said. "The University's main goal is protecting the privacy of these students."
Holtzman cautioned that University policy regarding access to University legal resources was not clear. She noted that in other places, most defendants have used private counsel or accepted out-of-court settlements, which typically run in the thousands of dollars.
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