Harvard Law looks into RIAA piracy suits

While universities are still caught in the middle of the Recording Industry Association of America's nearly year-long effort to punish music piracy on campuses across the country, some students are beginning to strike back against the RIAA with legal investigations of their own.

A Harvard law class is currently exploring the legal indications for universities caught between a responsibility to protect their file-sharing students and their accountability to an industry crusading to make examples out of students violating piracy laws.

Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson's class has been working to formulate arguments on the schools' behalf.

The RIAA started sending letters to university administrators in February 2007, requesting they forward the settlement letters to the file-sharing students, according to the RIAA's website.

Nineteen Massachusetts Institute of Technology students received letters in the latest round of letters this year.

When the RIAA tracks down a file-sharing student, it files a "John Doe" lawsuit and then tries to use the court's discovery process to find out who uses a certain IP address, said Nesson. The RIAA get permission to subpoena a university with access to IP-address information to find out individual student names.

Nesson said the lawsuits are unfair fights.

"Students are completely overwhelmed by the legal apparatus behind the enforcement that the RIAA is bringing to bear," he said.

He said schools should not necessarily protect their students, but act in their own interest by staying neutral in the RIAA's campaign.

"I think the university has a huge interest at stake here," Nesson said. "It has to deal with the responsibility and mission of a university to provide an environment in which young students learn about and come to terms with legal authority."

Nesson said students would benefit by standing behind their university to stay neutral in the dispute between the RIAA and their students.

"[Students should] make a strong representation to the university to recognize its own interest in resisting the request by the RIAA to become its policing instrument," he said.

When the RIAA issued subpoenas requesting the names of 17 students at the University of Oregon, administrators sought the help of Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, said Justice Department spokeswoman Stephanie Soden.

She said the university has decided to ignore the RIAA's request and the Justice Department has filed a motion to "quash the subpoena." "There has been no word from the judge yet," Soden said.

Boston University does not reveal students' names to the RIAA unless it receives a lawfully-issued subpoena by which the court demands BU provide the name, spokesman Colin Riley said. He said students should do what is in their own best interest and seek legal counsel.

"There can be consequences for students who violate the Code of Computing Ethics and the Code of Student Responsibilities, but those are certainly secondary when you're looking at the students having to deal with the legal action on behalf of the RIAA," he said.