The Recording Industry Association of America has filed two more lawsuits against unnamed Internet users at Penn. The two defendants are accused of illegally uploading copyrighted music onto Internet file-sharing programs.
The University received a subpoena demanding the identity of the two Internet users in late December. The RIAA is able to trace the Internet Protocol addresses of file-sharers to a service provider -- like Penn -- but from there they need the cooperation of the provider to determine the identity of the perpetrators.
According to a precedent set by an Oct. 12 ruling by the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, the accused have a three-week grace period before their provider must reveal their identity. The deadline for the names of the two accused Penn users to be revealed is Jan. 20.
In accordance with the October ruling, the University has informed the two users of the lawsuit.
The suits were part of a massive wave of litigation that the RIAA filed on Dec. 16. The copyright infringement lawsuits named 754 "John Doe" file-sharers, which are actually just 754 IP addresses. Users from other universities were targeted as well, including Columbia University, Old Dominion University, the State University of West Georgia, Westchester University and Widener University.
Such lawsuits are part of the RIAA's strategy of suing individual users that began in Sep. 2003.
This is not the first lawsuit the RIAA has launched against individuals at Penn. A previous lawsuit was filed in Mar. 2004 against six Penn Internet users.
After the grace period, the University only revealed the name of one individual to the RIAA, claiming that information on the other five users no longer existed on the database.
Penn's Associate General Counsel Robert Terrell said, "the subpoena was many months after the alleged infringement."
According to Terrell, there was "insufficient logging information from the lapse of time."
Wharton Marketing Professor Peter Fader said he strongly disagrees with the approach the RIAA is taking. His research has led him to believe that the RIAA is damaging itself with its campaign.
"These lawsuits are such a backwards move on the part of the industry. There's no evidence they have had had any result. It legitimizes file sharing," Fader said.
He instead suggested that the industry promote subscription programs like MusicMatch and Napster.
"You want to steer people away from downloading, legal or illegal," he said.
