High illegal downloading rates and a whole network of young, powerless culprits to put the pressure on - for the Recording Industry Association of America, it seems that college students are the perfect criminals.
The RIAA has pushed yet another onslaught of lawsuits against students over the last six months, with over 3,000 pre-litigation letters sent out to college campuses across the country.
Penn has had 17 students threatened with lawsuits thus far, with 11 settling for sums likely approaching $3,000. University information and security officer Dave Millar said he expects the RIAA to continue to target more students using Penn's network.
RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said the organization doesn't target specific individuals. But while the RIAA's lawsuits have even included 10-year-olds and grandmothers, it's obvious that college students are a large demographic among which they're trying to prevent illegal downloading.
Surveys show that 50 percent of college students download illegally nationwide, and the RIAA Web site makes clear that the recording industry lost over $1.6 billion to students since 2006.
And with thousands of students on one network, it's simple for the RIAA to go after multiple users at one time.
"I think [the RIAA] targets college students because they're easy to intimidate and are the biggest threat to their crumbling business model," said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jason Schultz.
The creation of the Internet2 network - a high-powered research network operated by 206 universities nationwide - has made file-sharing even easier for college students, and has thus become another tool for the RIAA to efficiently monitor.
And despite years of these litigation tactics - Penn was also targeted by the RIAA in 2004 and 2005 - Duckworth said the current wave of suits has "no set end date."
Opponents of the RIAA have heavily criticized the organization's efforts, and while a class-action lawsuit has been filed against the RIAA, it looks as if a self-imposed halt on lawsuits is the only thing students can hope for.
The RIAA "are embedded in a copyright war, and they have no exit strategy," Schutz said. "They are shooting themselves in the foot by alienating their best customers."
For the time being, legal downloading sites such as Ruckus will be under-utilized, students will continue to either settle or contest lawsuits, and digital-rights proponents will continue to criticize the organization's efforts, likely with little tangible results.
College senior Steve McLaughlin founded a "Free Culture" group on campus in 2006 to protest the RIAA, but it has since disbanded.
"The actions of the RIAA are legally acceptable but morally repugnant," he said. "To slap somebody with a $100,000 lawsuit is . an example of an unfair manipulation of the little guys by the big guys."
