There’s been a lot of good discussion lately about more and more universities standing up to the RIAA and refusing to identify filesharing students and forward settlement letters. Eric Rehm from the University of Washington, in a letter to Vice-Provost Eric Godfrey, spells out some ways that universities are pushing back against RIAA pressure–fighting the RIAA by refusing to hand out the letters (University of Wisconsin), bill the RIAA for the cost it takes to process the notices (University of Nebraska), and tell the RIAA to “take a hike” (Harvard University).
Recently, it’s been brought to our attention that the University of Michigan (where I currently attend school) has just forwarded on a slew of letters to students concerning alleged p2p filesharing identified by the RIAA. While I praise the aforementioned universities for standing up to the RIAA, I respect the University of Michigan’s explanation in sending the letters. The university is trying to support the best interests of its students. By delivering the notices, the university can give students a bit of a legal head start by providing things like legal assistance. If the university does not send the letters, all bets are off as to whether the RIAA will settle. Students lose because they get named in lawsuits. The university looks like it withheld vital piece of information that could have students pain and suffering.
Most of the time, the question is not whether the RIAA will be able to match student names with university IP addresses. This can be done by university decision or subpoena. The question is how universities should support their students. The position held by the University of Michigan seems fairly fatalistic–”if we don’t tell you now, the RIAA will tell you later, except then, it will be much worse.” Universities need to try to better balance the process of informing and supporting students without being strong-armed by groups like the RIAA, who have been frequently targeting schools to hammer its zero-tolerance anti-piracy agenda. Universities should not be seen as a convenient mail delivery system. At the same time, let’s not feed students to the wolves by keeping them in the dark.
