The Recording Industry Association of America began its latest barrage of lawsuits against illegal file sharers last Thursday, targeting four users on Penn's network.
Out of the 757 suits filed, 64 were against individuals using university networks at 17 colleges.
These included Drexel, Columbia, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Princeton, among others.
This new wave of "John Doe" lawsuits -- wherein the identity of the accused parties is unknown when the cases are filed -- marks the third time the RIAA has taken action against individuals connected to university computer networks.
David Millar, the University's information-security officer, said that Penn hears from the RIAA every 6 to 8 months. Occasionally, subpoenas are issued, demanding that the University identify the users of the Internet protocol addresses traced by the RIAA.
Last year, of the nine lawsuits filed by the RIAA based on IP addresses at Penn, Millar said that the University was only able to identify two corresponding users.
However, Millar added that with the advent of the NetReg system -- which was enacted this year to allow the University to manage security incidents -- officials will be able to identify the four perpetrators.
RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement that businesses that encourage such thefts and individuals who download illegally can be held accountable for their actions. This, he added, "should not be ignored by students returning to campus this fall with sights set on free music."
However, Marketing professor Peter Fader -- who is part of a committee that is studying file-sharing options for the University -- and Law professor Polk Wagner both express skepticism about the power of the RIAA's actions to combat illegal file-sharing.
Both Wagner and Fader said that the RIAA's lawsuits are not effective in ending the fight against illegal downloading and only hurt the industry's image.
"The music industry is being very selective by controlling schools with the threat of lawsuits," Fader said.
"It's like a dinosaur suing a meteor for [making it] extinct," Fader said, calling the lawsuits counterproductive.
He added that the RIAA only targets illegal uploading and sharing of music. In essence, students can still download illegal files and escape penalty.
Wagner said that file-sharing has become "too widespread and too technologically advanced" for lawsuits to have any effect. Instead, he said that a different strategy for the "Internet age" is needed.
Fader agreed, saying that students have very little awareness of subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster, from which they can stream unlimited amounts of music for less than $10 a month.
"It is a marketing mistake of enormous proportions," he said.
