The RIAA’s Seventh Wave!
By basscleff | August 17, 2007
RIAA Sends Seventh Wave of Pre-Litigation Letters
By Susan Butler, N.Y. (original article posted here)
The RIAA has sent a new wave of 503 pre-litigation settlement letters to 58 universities on behalf of its record company members.
The latest round of letters is part of the education and deterrence campaign the RIAA launched earlier this year, which focused on illegal file sharing on college campuses. The program gives students the opportunity to resolve copyright infringement claims against them at a discounted rate before a formal lawsuit is filed. Each letter informs the school of the forthcoming infringement suit against one of its students or personnel who used the school’s computer network, and then requests the university administrators to forward the letter to the appropriate user.
The RIAA sent its seventh wave of letters to: Boston University, University of Tennessee - Knoxville; North Carolina State University; Duke University; University of Maine System; Columbia University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Texas at Austin; Boston College; Carleton College; Georgetown University; Indiana State University; Marshall University; New York University; Tulane University; University of Virginia; Bethel University; California State University, Fresno; California State University, Sacramento; Colgate University; Emory University; Loyola University Chicago; University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Mississippi; Allegheny College; Gettysburg College; Lehigh University; Seton Hall University; University of Kentucky; Washington University; Bryn Mawr College; Bucknell University; California State University, Chico; Creighton University; Florida Institute of Technology; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Rice University; Texas A&M University; University of Florida; University of Notre Dame; Bowdoin College; Haverford College; Mt. Saint Mary College; Pepperdine University, San Jose State University, Smith College, Trinity College; University of Minnesota - Duluth; American University; California State University, Stanislaus; San Diego State University; University of Hawaii; Villanova University; Oberlin College; Swarthmore College; Virginia Military Institute; and Wellesley College.
Because of the summer schedule, the RIAA is extending the amount of time that the recipient of a pre-litigation letter has to contact the organization’s legal representatives to work out a settlement.
Since launching the program in February 2007, the RIAA has sent approximately 2,926 pre-litigation settlement letters to universities nationwide. The letters are in addition to the lawsuits that labels continue to file on a rolling basis against those allegedly engaging in music theft via commercial Internet accounts.