Worst Music Piracy Offenders
When it comes to music piracy, the recording industry has spent the past year singling out students at the University of South Florida as being among the worst offenders at schools nationwide.
After this school year began, however, representatives of the world's largest record labels shared with USF leaders what seemed good news: They were pleased with the university's efforts to contain the problem.
Yet the record labels have shown little sign of letting up their fight against USF students they have caught illegally swapping music online.
The Recording Industry Association of America continues to send threats of legal action to USF students at a higher rate than all but one university in the United States.
Since the start of 2007, the recording industry has sent 124 USF students the same ominous notice, accusing each of music piracy and demanding a settlement of $3,000. Failing to do so, the letters warned, would result in a costly lawsuit.
"How do they expect a student to pay that type of outrageous bill when they're going to school?" said Nathaniel Dudley, whose son, Austin, a USF prelaw student, is being sued by several record labels accusing him of music piracy. "You know they don't have any money. They're exploiting these students."
The recording industry began its legal campaign against college students in February, and USF was among its first targets. For years, it had sent the university complaints that its students using the campus computer network were illegally sharing music online. Of the 25 schools that received the most copyright infringement complaints, USF ranked No. 11.
Michael Pearce, USF's new chief technology officer, told faculty leaders at an Oct. 17 meeting that the recording industry now ranked the university 92nd in copyright complaints.
The next day, however, the Recording Industry Association of America sent 43 USF students the letters threatening litigation and urging them to settle. The letters represent a more serious and expensive threat than the copyright complaints, and are typically reserved for more egregious violations, a recording industry spokeswoman said.
The university has yet to launch software meant to block students from illicitly sharing songs online. In responding to reports that too many of her students were pirating music, USF President Judy Genshaft in May said that the software, developed by a Florida company, would be running by the fall semester.
Stakes Could Become More Costly
Pearce, who started his job at USF eight weeks ago, said the university finalized an agreement with the software developer, Red Lambda. The software, which may cost the university up to $75,000 a year to operate, should be running by the end of the month. "It's just not an overnight process," Pearce said.
Once up, it will detect students visiting a file-sharing Web site such as Limewire or BitTorrent and direct them to a page demanding to know why they visited the site. If they fail to respond, they will be booted off the campus network.
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