RIAA suits targeting students
by Rawly Bransom
editor

   The Recording Industry Association of America last week filed a new batch of law suits—this time targeting many students who used their college servers to download music illegally.
   As reported in last week’s The Collegian, TCC has set up its computer stations so that file sharing has not yet become a problem for the district.
   Still 89 people from 21 separate universities were named as a part of the newest wave of John Doe lawsuits March 23.
   So far, no Texas universities have been named in the lawsuits, but RIAA president Cary Sherman, in an online press conference with student newspaper editors and reporters across the country, said that colleges are a hotspot for illegal downloading.
   “ Obviously, college students are a big part of the problem, and, therefore, it was only a matter of time before university users would be named as defendants,” he said.
   Sherman also said that statistics from universities have shown that 60-70 percent of network usage is for downloading music files or sharing.
   “ Piracy, which is particularly rampant on college campuses, continues to hurt the retailers, musicians, producers, record labels and thousands of less-celebrated individuals involved in making music,” she said.
   The loss has not just been to record companies and artists.
Sherman said record companies have had to lay-off thousand of employees; songwriters have lost royalties that allow them to continue to write, and many record stores have been put out of business.
   “ We lost a third of our sales in just three years. Record stores were closing by the thousands, especially stores near college campuses,” he said.
   Sherman hopes the college community begins to use legitimate online servers such as Napster 2.0, Musicmatch, ITunes, the new Wal-Mart online program or many of the other P2P sites.
   “ Launching these services requires a serious investment. Very few companies would invest the dollars and effort necessary if they’re competing with stolen copies of the same music they’re trying to sell,” he said.
   Sherman warns users that many of the illegal file-sharing programs have had problems with viruses that give out the users’ personal information and that the users often do not get the songs they thought they were getting.
   “ The legal services are going to be more and more appealing to consumers as the warts of the P2P become more obvious,” he said.
   According to Sherman, P2P services are a problem students should be concerned with.
   Not only does music file sharing hurt the talent available to music lovers, but it also has a detrimental impact on the economy and the world as a whole Sherman said.
   “ So many college students are concerned about the aggregate impact of development in Brazil or sulfur from power plants because they recognize that the actions of one person contribute to a global problem with adverse global consequences. It’s no different with respect to illegal file sharing,” he said.