Five years and nearly 35,000 lawsuits later, the Recording Industry Association of America is stopping its legal war against individuals for file-sharing activities.
The announcement comes as a relief for many students who worried about facing fines; however, the University has not yet determined how it will affect its policies, if at all.
Instead of filing lawsuits, the RIAA has signed "graduated response" agreements with several major Internet service providers to combat illegal file-sharing.
Individuals who are found to be in violation of piracy law will receive three warnings before their Internet service is suspended or cut off completely.
The organization plans to send an e-mail to the violator's ISP, reporting the file-sharing taking place. Depending on the specific agreement signed with the ISP, the e-mail will be forwarded to the customer or the ISP will simply ask the user to stop sharing files.
Previously, some of the loudest criticism against the RIAA stemmed from its subpoenas for ISPs to disclose customers' names. The organization hopes that the new policy will allay these privacy concerns.
RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol said in a statement, "A graduated response program is far less blunt, far more efficient and, we believe, ultimately far more effective to protect the property rights of the music community."
Details about which service providers have signed agreements have not been released. However, Verizon has said it will not participate.
The RIAA plans to continue with its ongoing legal proceedings.
Penn's policy in the past has been to forward violation letters to students, who could then pay a $3,000 fine or risk further legal action.
This fall, the University rolled out a "Know the Facts" campaign with posters around campus to discourage file-sharing and warn of the monetary consequences violators could face.
There are no current plans to change the University's policy because they are waiting for further details from the RIAA, according to Leo Charney from the Provost's Office.
In total, the RIAA has sent 114 pre-litigation letters to Penn students since February 2007.
Many argued that the lawsuits did little to curb music piracy and instead portrayed the industry and the RIAA in a very negative light.
One such critic, Wharton and College sophomore Aneesh Jain, said he thought the policies were ineffective.
"Mass quantities of music have been pirated," he said. "All it created for them was a PR headache and finally they've gotten some sense knocked into them."
However, Wharton junior Sagar Shah believes the RIAA was justified in its original actions.
"Musicians are losing money they deserve and it is unfair for them to receive no compensation for their hard work and product," he said.
This new approach will be closely watched by other industries, like film and television, who may follow suit if it is successful. Piracy of movies and television shows has increased in recent years due to faster downloading technology.
