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RIAA targets Morrisville music pirates

SYRACUSE - The music business wants to know who's stealing its Shaggy.

Five recording companies have filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of New York against two "John Doe" music pirates the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has tracked to Morrisville State College. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Virgin Records America, UMG Recordings, Arista Records, and BMG Music are plaintiffs in the case. The list of artists victimized includes Shaggy, Nas, Ja Rule, Usher, DMX, and Beenie Man.

The complaint alleges that two computer users, known only by Internet protocol (IP) numbers assigned to Morrisville State College, have violated federal copyright law. An IP address is a unique number that can identify which particular computer performed particular actions on the Internet.

RIAA investigators allege that the John Doe defendants used the Kazaa file-sharing network to make copyrighted songs available for download. The complaint seeks a discovery order allowing the plaintiffs to discover the identities of the unknown Morrisville downloaders. A federal judge issued an order granting the plaintiffs subpoena power on Nov. 5.

Morrisville says it plans to obey any court orders served on it.

"The college was notified of the John Doe lawsuit by the RIAA. At present, we have yet to receive a subpoena. We will certainly comply with the letter of the law," says Jessica DeCerce, director of public relations for Morrisville State College.

The RIAA concedes in court documents that it has only determined that Morrisville's IP address was used to infringe copyrighted works.

"The RIAA could not, however, determine the physical location of the users or their identities," says a supporting declaration filed with the suit.

Morrisville is known nationwide as a technically advanced school. The college introduced laptop computers and wirelesscomputing networks before most other schools, earning accolades as the "most wired," school from computing magazines. The "wired" designation is an anachronism as Morrisville has even done away with its telephone lines, switching students to Nextel phones so they can Direct Connect when they're not using the college's computing network.

Since the mid-1990s, computer users have been able to copy and exchange music files in a file format known as MP3. Computer file networks called "peer-to-peer," such as Kazaa, allow users to search out and download songs from other users. The "file-sharers" pay no attention to copyright laws that prohibit unauthorized duplication arid, distribution. The RIAA has waged an ongoing legal battle against music pirates since the dawn of the MP3 file format. Apple and other major companies have launched musicdownload stores but find it difficult to compete with filesharers' free music.

Lawsuits are one way to encourage file-sharing copyright violators to join the legitimate music market.

"Our legal efforts help build an essential foundation for the continued development of the legal online music marketplace," says Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA. "On that count, we continue to see promising developments."

John Doe No. 1 is identified in an exhibit by the Kazaa user name "YANCY07." The exhibit contains a multi-page list showing song files the RIAA says were on the users' computer for download. The complaint specifies nine copyrighted songs RIAA investigators downloaded from John Doe No. I's computer on Sept. 28. John Doe No. 2 is alleged to have made nine copyrighted songs available on Sept. 14. The songs identified in the complaint include "Nastradamus," "Girls Dem Sugar," "Got Me a Model," and "Funkdafied."

Jonathan Whitehead, RIAA counsel for online-copy protection, explains the non-profit trade group's investigation methods in a supplemental court filing. Whitehead outlines the RIAA's role in helping member companies protect the copyrights to their recordings. His statement discusses how the RLAA believes media theft is the driving force behind the growth of high-speed Internet service.

"The infringers thus tend to subscribe to services such as DSL and cable modems, that are far more expensive than ordinary telephone services," writes Whitehead. "One publication recently estimated that 57 to 70 percent of the bandwidth of cable broadband network was being used for P2P file copying."

Whitehead's statement says the music industry has used subpoenas "thousands of times" to learn downloaders' identities.

To illustrate his point on the copyright danger of file-sharing, White-head includes 34 pages of Kazaa screenshots of YANCY07's available files. Each page lists approximately 30 computer files.

The MP3 file title doesn't prove that a particular file has been pirated. In order to prove that the songs aren't legitimately owned, RIAA investigators download the songs and listen to them to ensure they are what the computer file title claims.

The RIAA promises more enforcement of its members' copyrights in the future.

"In order for legitimate services to continue their growth, we cannot ignore those who take and distribute music illegally," says Sherman. "There must be consequences to breaking the law or illegal downloading will cripple the music community's ability to support itself now or invest in the future."