The RIAA has sent another wave of pre-litigation settlement letters to universities this week for its member labels. Another 401 letters went to administrators of 12 universities, who were asked to forward them to the individuals associated with certain specified IP addresses.
Recipients of the letters have the opportunity to avoid a potential copyright infringement lawsuit by settling out of court for a reduced fee.
Formal lawsuits have been filed against 2,465 letter recipients since the campaign first began last year, according to the RIAA. These individuals either chose to not settle the claim or were not given the option to settle early because the university failed to forward the letters. Of the 5,005 letters sent in prior rounds, the RIAA has reached settlements with more than 2,300 of those individuals.
The letters cite individuals for online music theft over the universities’ computer networks via peer-to-peer services such as Ares, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire and Morpheus.
The RIAA’s 13th wave of letters went to the following colleges: Boston University (35 pre-litigation settlement letters); Columbia University (50); Drexel University (33); Indiana University (40); North Carolina State University (35); Ohio State University (30); Purdue University (28); Tufts University (20); University of Maine System (32); University of New Hampshire (32); University of Southern California (50); and the University of Virginia (16).
The pre-lawsuit letters, sent to individuals at more than 150 schools, are one piece of a multi-faceted industry campaign to encourage fans to enjoy music legally. Despite years of warnings, educational campaigns and the availability of multiple legal options, online music theft, especially on campuses, remains a major problem for the music community.
“One year into our legal campaign, we’ve seen an emerging legal marketplace that would have struggled to gain traction were it not for our efforts to clamp down on online music theft,” says Cara Duckworth, RIAA director of communications.
According to the IFPI, there are now more than 6 million tracks available on 500 different licensed services.
The letters are in addition to the lawsuits that the RIAA-member labels continue to file on a rolling basis against those engaging in music theft via commercial Internet accounts.
