Heedless of negative coverage in the press and rising resentment among music fans, The Recording Industry Association of America announced late last week that it had sent colleges another round of letters threatening to sue students who have downloaded music illegally.
The 396 letters were sent to 22 university administrators, encouraging them to identify the users of IP addresses that the RIAA believes are responsible for digital piracy. It's a tactic the RIAA has used in the past to pressure schools into fingering students and, perhaps, encourage the kids to cough up some settlement money before a lawsuit is filed.
According to Billboard.com, this latest, 11th batch of letters brings the total number of letters sent by the RIAA to 4,553.
“For those who ignore these great legal options and ignore years of warnings, we will continue to bring lawsuits,” Jonathan Lamy, Senior Vice President, Communications at the RIAA said in a statement. “It’s not our first choice, but it’s a necessary part of the equation."
Alleged pirates who want to settle a pending case are directed to the RIAA Website www.p2plawsuits.com.
Here's the breakdown of colleges that received pre-litigation settlement letters, according to the RIAA:
Auburn University (13 letters), Brandeis University (12), Georgia Institute of Technology (16), Gustavus Adolphus College (36), Indiana State University (18), Iowa State University (13), Ithaca College (15), Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (16), Louisiana Tech University (15), Mississippi State University (15), Morehead State University (17), Rochester Institute of Technology (12), University of Arizona (14), University of California, Davis (14), University of California, San Diego (17), University of California, Santa Cruz (24), University of Dayton (16), University of Massachusetts at Amherst (30), University of Rochester (15), University of Southern California (33), University of Washington (16), and Western Kentucky University (19).
Check out what appears to be an older version of the settlement letter here.
IMAGE: BoingBoing.net.