I love getting mail! Sure, sometimes it's only bills and advertisements, but other times you can find really exciting stuff in your mailbox -- like the postcard from Egypt my old roommate sent me or that graduation check from my grandma I used to finance my drinking habit. And what could be even more exciting than great surprises like that? Well a pre-litigation letter from the RIAA, of course!
If you are one of the lucky university students who engaged in illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing and didn't settle with the RIAA after receiving their first warning letter -- whether your college failed to forward you the letter or because you chose not to settle outside of court -- then you might be getting a very special delivery very soon. Here's the low-down:
Earlier this week, the RIAA sent out 401 letters to the administrators of 12 institutions of higher learning. College higher-ups are supposed to forward these letters to students who use IP addresses connected to Limewire, BitTorrent, Morpheus, and other "illegal" download sites. If students agree to settle outside of court, they can avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit. During earlier rounds, the RIAA sent 5,005 letters and reached settlements with over 2,300 recipients. After the pre-litigation letter campaign began last year, 2,465 people have had copyright infringement lawsuits filed against them. It's all part of a multi-step plan to convince music fans of the importance of legal downloads.
So which colleges can expect a slew of scary, scary pre-litigation letters? Heads up, Columbia University, Drexel University, Indiana University, Boston University, Tufts University, Purdue University, Indiana University, North Carolina State University, Ohio State, University of Maine, University of New Hampshire, University of Virginia, and University of Southern California.
