The RIAA's latest attempt to convince college students not to share music using their university connections has not gone entirely smoothly. According to the RIAA, 49% of the students who have receiving the settlement notices have settled out of court; however, some universities are refusing to forward the notices to students in the first place, so the actual percentage is lower.
The latest to resist is North Carolina State University, where Pam Gerace, director of Student Legal Services, is trying to prevent sued students' names from being turned over to the RIAA. According to her, "the RIAA actually said they might have use for the names in the future." To protect students from additional lawsuits from record companies or even the RIAA itself, she says the names of those sued after refusing to settle should be kept out of the suits.
Gerace also pointed out that while the RIAA's settlement notices don'tinclude a timeline, students generally "can take their time" whenfiguring out how to respond. And students who are being sued can makea motion to quash the subpoenas, which might not be valid. At the veryleast, that would slow down the RIAA's case. "If someone is subpoenaedand they say they don't want to comply, thesubpoenaed party says they can't come for a certain reason. Then itgoes to the federal court who could take a year to makea decision."
The University of Maine, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee have also resisted the RIAA subpoenas, by refusing to forward the RIAA's settlement notices to students (by looking at logs to see which student was using the offending IP address when the files were shared).
Students who have been sent a settlement notice or have been subpoenad might want to take a look at these guidelines on how to deal with the settlement letter and/or subpoena.
