RIAA Sues Another 750 For File Sharing

Even as some file-sharing networks wave the white flag, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) kept up the pressure Thursday by filing another 757 lawsuits against people accused of illegally copying digital music.

Sixty-four of the people targeted use the high-speed Internet2 network, the RIAA said, which named 17 universities, including Boston University, Columbia, Princeton, and UCLA, as among the offenders.

Coincidentally, the RIAA became a corporate member of Internet2 only two weeks ago. At that time, Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, said in a statement that "we look forward to collaborative work with a broad spectrum of Internet2’s members to develop new technologies that will enable us to produce and distribute digital content over next generation networks in ways that protect and enhance the value of creative works."

The remaining 693 "John Doe" lawsuits were filed against users of such peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks as eDonkey and LimeWire.

In its two-year legal campaign against file sharing, the RIAA has sued some 14,800 U.S. computer users. Nor are the actions against Internet 2 users new; this is the third wave of suits naming users of the high-speed network intended for academic researchers. In April and May 2005, the RIAA expanded its anti-copying efforts to include nearly 500 students at 38 different Internet2-equipped schools.

"As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions," Sherman said in a May statement.