The Recording Industry Association of America released its 13th wave of pre-litigation letters Thursday.
This wave, which did not include UW-Madison among the 12 offending universities, is the most recent in the RIAA's year-long campaign to combat illegal downloading on university campuses.
A spokesperson for the RIAA said the universities listed in the press release are allegedly violating copyright law enforced by an online investigation team.
The team, which looks for activity taking place on illegal downloading sites, identifies users, records time and date stamp of illegal activity, the IP address for that individual and a representative sampling of the music shared. All of this information is then used to move forward with a formal case that begins with these pre-litigation letters.
Ohio State University, which received 30 letters in this wave, has implemented an anti-piracy campaign that is reminiscent of the educational tactics used at UW-Madison
We put material in orientation for both the parent and student orientations, we have posters, We put table cards on dining hall tables, we do ads on campus busses, and we're at move-in. We have a responsible use policy that links to virtual legality, said Bob Kalal, head of Ohio State's technology department.
However, UW-Madison recently added a new educational tool to their already extensive campaign to prevent illegal downloading.
""There is a short video that was produced at the end of last semester that had to be screened by all new and returning students who live in housing. They had to view it before they could be authenticated to use the housing network,"" said Brian Rust, communications manager for UW-Madison Division of Information Technology.
""We're glad that we're not in the top 10 or top 20, and we have always been vigilant about telling students and staff to obey copyright law,"" Rust said. ""We spend a considerable about of money not only publicizing these issues but handling the letters we get from the RIAA.""
The RIAA spokesperson reminds universities that just because other universities, like UW-Madison, sent letters in the most recent wave, it ""is an ongoing campaign and that is continually expanding the number of schools in the recipients of the pre-litigation letters.""
Ultimately, any university sent letters in the past thirteen rounds can receive letters in the future.
