RIAA, MPAA Target Piracy on Internet2, Hold Off on Application Liability
The RIAA and MPAA said they would file separate suits Wed. against “presumed” college users sharing files through Internet2, the high-speed network run by a consortium of 207 universities. However, the effort is mutual. Though not sharing information each group regards as proprietary, “we are working very collaboratively,” MPAA Pres. Dan Glickman said in a conference call Tues. The MPAA also will identify and act Wed. against previously alleged file-sharers who chose not to settle, he said.
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“This special high-speed Internet technology… has been hijacked for illegal purposes,” RIAA Pres. Cary Sherman said in a conference call Tues. Internet2 is designed for research and academic use, but the year-old file-sharing application i2hub has used the network for downloads, typically at 5 min. per movie and 20 sec. per song, he said. Glickman said slightly more than 7,000 users were trading 99 terabytes of data -- an entire Blockbuster store’s inventory, he claimed -- through i2hub. The shared files are “pretty close to being the same material” found on other P2P networks, but “it’s a very high volume of material” relative to the user population. Students mistakenly deem Internet2 a “safe zone,” thinking its closed nature shields them, Sherman said: “We wanted to puncture that misconception… We think that students have taken the actions of the past year and a half seriously,” meaning the many settlements for thousands of dollars each by admitted infringers. Internet2 CEO Douglas Van Howling is supporting both legal efforts.
No more than 25 John Doe students will be hit with RIAA suits at each school, making 405 suits total, Sherman said. Some universities got more than 25 notices of individual infringement, including 39 at Princeton, but “14 lucky students… will have escaped a lawsuit” there, he added. MPAA declined say how many new suits it would file. Both groups have told university presidents students will be sued and sought educational and technological efforts to curb Internet2 sharing: “We would hope they would be a little more proactive in identifying these problems” before lawsuits land, Sherman said. In particular RIAA wants colleges to filter copyrighted works on university networks and block ports commonly used in file-sharing. Malcolm praised universities, including the U. of Fla., that use filtering for copyrighted works on their networks. Universities, which are de facto ISPs, won’t be targeted, Sherman said: RIAA has a “very effective and collaborative relationship” with schools. He was unaware of suits against students at schools subscribing to campuswide legal download services. RIAA lawsuits affect 18 universities, while MPAA is targeting students at 7 schools; both lists include Carnegie Mellon, the U. of Mass.-Amherst, Columbia, Ohio State, U of Cal., San Diego, the Ga. Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Administrators of i2hub, which runs on a centralized server, aren’t an immediate target, but MPAA officials sounded an ominous note. “We have a message for its creator: We know who you are and we strongly encourage you to stop what you're doing,” Glickman said. On whether a Grokster-like suit would be among those filed Wed., Malcolm said: “Not tomorrow… We reserve all our legal options.” It wouldn’t be hard to block infringed files on i2hub, which is “a lot like the original Napster,” Malcolm added. Though file-sharing on traditional networks such as Grokster has declined in rough proportion to the growth of i2hub and BitTorrent operators, RIAA is waiting for the Supreme Court ruling in MGM v. Grokster to decide on pursuing other P2P companies and clients, Sherman said.