In an effort to re-educate the public about the criminality of online copyrighted file sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced they began collecting information on individual illegal file sharers June 27.
The announcement came just seven days after the RIAA won a legal victory over Verizon Communications. Verizon, an Internet service provider, was obligated to divulge the identity of Kazaa users who where suspected of copyright infringement.
The U of M Tiger LAN falls under the category of an Internet service provider.
The RIAA plans to file the first lawsuits in mid-August.
The University of Memphis is concerned about the use of Tiger LAN computers by students who download copyrighted information, according to Valeria Wiggins, lab coordinator for the information technologies division for The U of M.
The university's legal department has issued new guidelines for Tiger LAN in the wake of the RIAA legal victories and announcements.
The University has already sent some students to the Office of Judicial and Ethical Programs for violation of the download guidelines, according to Wiggins.
After the guidelines were in place, "people seemed to be a little more cautious about downloading," said Heater Truesby, a lab attendant and post-undergraduate Spanish major.
According to Truesby, in the past, "especially at night," the McWherter Library Lab "would be filled with people with headphones surrounded by CDs and burning music."
Although the volume of downloads has diminished, according to both Truesby and Wiggins, some students still download music freely.
Students who do download music are either unaware or do not think that the RIAA can track individual downloads. Some think that the university itself is not capable of monitoring students' every move.
"I don't think it's a big deal at The University," said Curtis Robby junior English major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who uses the Tiger LAN in the summer.
"If it was a personal computer then there would be a danger," said Robby, adding that using a home computer there would be an even greater danger.
In fact, The University has only a limited monitoring range when it comes to individual Tiger LAN users, according to Wiggins.
This, however, does not limit the RIAA ability to monitor individual hard drives connected to peer-to-peer software. When students connect to such software, they can be scanned for "substantial" illegal copyrighted material, according to the RIAA. The RIAA has not revealed the number of files it considers "substantial."
Recently, record labels are striking partnerships with pay for play Internet ventures, where users will be able to download songs for a few dollars or pay a subscription for the service. Some students still think that if they can download it free, why should they pay. "It's silly to pay $20 for a CD," said Karin Morley, senior English major at The U of M.
"Musicians don't need to be millionaires," Morley said. "You should not get millions of dollars just for playing a guitar."
