RIAA to sue hundreds of downloaders

[Francisco Monjardino]

RIAA to sue hundreds of downloaders

Lawsuits to target hundreds of college students for distributing music, movies over Web, group says.
April 12, 2005: 4:54 PM EDT


WASHINGTON (AP) - The recording industry intends to sue hundreds of college students accused of illegally distributing music and movies across Internet2, the super-fast computer network connecting leading universities for researching the next generation of the Internet, industry officials said Tuesday.

The Washington-based Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels, said it will file federal copyright lawsuits Wednesday against 405 students at 18 colleges with access to the Internet2 network, which boasts speeds hundreds of times faster than the Internet.

Researchers at Internet2 once demonstrated they can download a DVD-quality copy of the popular movie "The Matrix" in 30 seconds over their network, a feat they said would take roughly 25 hours over the Internet.

Internet2 is used by several million university students, researchers and professionals around the world but is generally inaccessible to the public.

"We don't condone or support illegal file-sharing," said Internet2's chief executive, Doug Van Houweling. "We've always understood that just like there is a lot of file-sharing going on on the public Internet, there's also some file- sharing going on on Internet2."

The recording industry said some students were illegally sharing across Internet2 as many as 13,600 music files -- far more than most Internet users -- and that the average number of songs offered illegally by the students was 2,300 each. It said it found evidence of more illegal file-sharing at 140 more schools in 41 states and sent warning letters to university presidents.

"We cannot let this high-speed network become a zone of lawlessness where the normal rules don't apply," said Cary Sherman, president of the recording association.

The Motion Picture Association of America also was expected to file federal copyright lawsuits Wednesday against college students with access to Internet2.