September 20, 2007
Purdue receives 47 more settlement letters from RIAA
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Forty-seven more users of the Purdue University Internet network soon will begin receiving letters of threatened legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America.In an effort to enforce music copyright, the association is harvesting Internet addresses of computers that allegedly offered music for others to download illegally. It then is asking Internet service providers to forward letters to alleged violators offering the option of paying a settlement fee or facing possible legal action.
As an Internet service provider, Purdue will forward these letters when the user can be accurately identified, said Purdue spokesperson Jeanne Norberg. The university forwarded 37 settlement offers last semester.
Purdue will not voluntarily provide names to the RIAA. However, should those notified choose not to pay the settlement, the RIAA may obtain court-ordered subpoenas to obtain the individuals' names. For the 37 who received settlement letters last semester, 21 subpoenas were issued this summer. Purdue provide the names of 19 individuals, and subsequently the RIAA reduced its total request for names to 17.
To protect against such allegations, Purdue advises all computer users to remove or at least partially disable any peer-to-peer file-sharing software on their computers. The Office of Information Technology at Purdue suggests you visit http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/copyright.cfm for information on how to disable file sharing on a variety of programs.
Source: Jeanne Norberg, (765) 494-2084, jnorberg@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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