Recording Industry Forces University to Identify Students Suspected of Music Piracy
By ANDREA L. FOSTER

The Recording Industry Association of America last week forced Loyola University Chicago to hand over the names of students whom the association suspected of offering music over the university network in violation of copyright law. The association obtained the data through a subpoena, indicating that the group is fulfilling its pledge to clamp down on peer-to-peer music piracy by threatening to sue thousands of people.

An officer for the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia delivered the subpoena to the university last Monday, according to Jack Corliss, a technology administrator at Loyola. The document, part of which was obtained by The Chronicle, cites the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and directs Loyola administrators to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of people assigned to a specific Internet address.

Mr. Corliss says the university complied with the subpoena after notifying two students assigned to the Internet address on Wednesday that the recording-industry group had sought their identities and contact information. The students, who are enrolled in the university's summer session, have not discussed the subpoena with university administrators, says Mr. Corliss.

Loyola is not the only college to receive such a subpoena since the recording-industry association announced last month that it would start amassing evidence to prepare lawsuits against people who upload large amounts of music, said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the group. But he declined to reveal how many colleges have received similar subpoenas.

"This should not come as a surprise to anyone that a subpoena may have been served on a college," said Mr. Lamy, adding that other Internet service providers, besides colleges, have received subpoenas.

The subpoena to Loyola suggests growing confidence by the recording industry in demanding that Internet service providers identify individuals who are sharing music online. When the recording industry issued a subpoena to Verizon Communications asking that it reveal subscribers' names, the company fought the demand. But it relented last month after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied the company's request to place the subpoena on hold while Verizon challenged a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Tracy B. Mitrano, director of the program in computer policy and law at Cornell University, said she has studied the question of whether colleges could refuse to comply with recording industry subpoenas, citing academic freedom or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and determined that they can not.

"I don't see how we have much of a choice," she said.

from The Chronicle of Higher Education