RIAA Continues To Sue Swappers, Many On Campus

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a new batch of 757 John Doe lawsuits against users of P2P networks, accusing them of copyright violations. Included in the new suits are cases against individuals at 17 college and university campuses accused of illegally trading songs over Internet2’s high-speed network using a file-sharing application called i2hub. The current action is the third time the RIAA has targeted users of i2hub and brings to 39 the number of campuses where students have been accused of copyright infringement using the application. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, invoked this summer’s Supreme Court ruling against Grokster in a statement he issued with the new lawsuits. “The authority of the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the Grokster case,” he said, “should not be ignored by students returning to campus this fall with sights set on free music.” Sherman praised efforts at some campuses to educate users and restrict their ability to illegally trade copyrighted material on university networks.

Internet News, 29 September 2005