The Recording Industry Association of America sent another batch of pre-litigation letters Wednesday in order to warn UW-Madison students who download and share music illegally. However, UW-Madison is still refusing to distribute the letters to the students.
According to Jenni Engebretsen, spokesperson for RIAA, 16 UW-Madison students that have been identified by RIAA should receive letters telling them they are involved in illegal practices and will have to go to court if they do not pay reparations.
But UW-Madison Interim Chief Information Officer Ken Frazier sent an e-mail to all UW-Madison students March 16 informing them that the university will neither forward the letters to the owners of the named IP addresses nor turn over the individuals' names to the RIAA.
According to Brian Rust, communications manager for DoIT, there is no way to be sure the student receiving the letter is the one downloading the music.
He said it is especially hard to pinpoint particular students in crowded areas like libraries and university residence halls.
Besides the difficulty of identifying individuals, the court implications of the letters also are offensive to the university, Rust said.
According to Engebretsen, these students can take advantage of the 20-day pre-litigation period given in the letter by contacting RIAA to discuss a settlement or to resolve the claims against them before a lawsuit is ever filed.
She added that the letters ask for a ""substantially reduced"" sum and that the incident would not appear on the student's public record.
Rust said it is ""disingenuous"" for the RIAA to imply the university is responsible for the student not being able to settle out of court.
""The settlement letter is saying, if you want to avoid prosecution, go to this website and give us money,"" Rust said. ""What's the proof that it was that particular student?""
UW-Madison freshman Lukas Bane said he thought pre-litigation letters were ""worrisome"" because of the difficulty in deciding whether ignoring the letter is worth the risk.
Letters were sent to 23 schools, and according to Engebretsen, music piracy remains acute on college campuses.
""[But] it's never been our goal to solve piracy,"" Engebretsen said. ""It's our goal to bring it to a manageable level of control.""
Rust, on the other hand, said he thinks the RIAA should find different means to deal with students directly rather than go through the university.
