I hope universities pass along the letters to students because if they do not that could result in a permanent mark on the students record.

Students breathed a temporary sigh of relief when a university e-mail sent Monday, March 26, said the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will not release names of alleged people who downloaded music illegally on campus computers until subpoenaed.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began cracking down on college students who may have downloaded copyrighted material on Feb. 28. In the RIAAs second wave of warnings sent out March 21, RIAA claimed 16 UWM students illegally downloaded music in either dorm halls or campus computer labs.

As for the UW System, there are 66 students on RIAAs list. Nationally, 805 students have been sent settlement proposal letters.

RIAA bases its accusations off the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). The act prohibits distribution of devices or programs used to get around the copyright protection. Thus, people who use peer-to-peer filing sharing like Limewire or Bittorrent, can be downloading copyrighted material.

RIAA needs the universities to give the names of the students because RIAA only has the Internet Service Provider (ISP) number. UWM is an ISP for the computers on campus, including the personal computers of dorm residents. However, according to the university e-mail, UWM will not release the names until a subpoena is issued.

DMCA official for UWM, Bruce Maas, said he thinks the university already has taken care of the problem. When a student violates the act, the student must take a guide online presentation.

Afterward, the student must pass a quiz to restore internet privileges. Rarely is there a second violation, Maas said. Mostly students are not aware of the DMCA law requirements.

As an educational institution, we must provide resources to students and faculty. That is what is happening at UWM, Maas said.

Liz Kennedy, an RIAA spokeswoman, said that in the first round of letters, 116 students settled out of court. There are some cases still pending for settling outside of court.

The student needs to respond in 20 days of when the letters were issued whether or not the student wants to accept the settlement offer. Pre-litigation settlements go from $2,000 to $3,000, while the RIAA wants $750 per song if the litigation goes to court.

Kennedy said the RIAA has had no direct contact with UWM about not passing the letters out to students.

I hope universities pass along the letters to students because if they do not that could result in a permanent mark on the students record, Kennedy said.

In addition, Kennedy does not know if any other schools have not passed along the settlement letters.

UWM junior, Peter Metzger, does not seem too worried about the RIAA letters.

The stuff I download the copyrights have expired or the artists just give access to the music. I may double check before downloading, said Metzger.

Electronic Frontier Foundation is a group of people wanting to make file sharing accessible but also making sure artists are compensated. On its Web site, it states the lawsuits are irrational because they do not deter people from file sharing and the artists are not seeing any money from the lawsuits.

The RIAA hopes to continue with the college students program.

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