Three Boston-area schools have refused to reveal the identities of students accused of illegally sharing music files, claiming that subpoenas served by a recording industry organization are invalid because they were filed in the wrong jurisdiction.
Boston University, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have all denied requests from the Recording Industry Association of America to release the names and contact information of students trading files on university networks.
BU attorney Robert B. Smith, in a July 14 letter to attorneys for the RIAA, asserted the subpoenas are ‘unenforceable’ in Massachusetts because they were issued by a court in Washington D.C., therefore clearing the university from any obligation to reveal students’ identities.
Smith’s letter stated the university would be willing to ‘comply with any lawfully issued, valid subpoena’ and had ‘no wish to foster an adversarial relationship with the [RIAA].’
The subpoenas are being issued to universities throughout the United States under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which Smith said in his letter ‘does not authorize nationwide service of subpoenas.’ If a judge upholds the university’s objection to the subpoena, it could be a major obstacle for the RIAA, which would be required to file subpoenas in U.S. District Courts in every state.
In a statement released in late July, MIT professor James Bruce vice president for Information Systems at MIT also questioned the validity of the subpoenas, and said the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act prevents the school from releasing information about students unless served with a valid subpoena.
Bruce further stated the law requires MIT ‘to give students advance notice of the existence of the subpoenas, so that they can take whatever action they may choose to try to protect their information from disclosure.’
Several area schools have also started to address the issue of file sharing and educate students and parents about the DMCA at freshmen orientation. Some BU students said they are worried about the law which could slap students with fines up to $150,000 for each illegally shared song but several said they do not think it will affect them.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Kevin Bryan has been downloading music files since before the creation of Napster one of the first major file sharing programs and has 4,713 songs downloaded on his computer. Bryan said he is not worried about going to jail or being fined.
‘First of all, they’re going after people with KaZaA, and I don’t have KaZaA,’ Bryan said. He also uses a program called EarthStation5 that ‘anonymizes’ his computer so his file sharing cannot be tracked, a process he said is fairly easy.
Still, Bryan said he would be worried about the fines if he did not have the program installed on his computer, and he said he thinks other students are becoming concerned about it.
‘I don’t think [file sharing is] illegal. It’s the same as going to a library,’ Bryan said. ‘Either way the copyright holder doesn’t get money, but people still enjoy the intellectual property.’
Despite his ability to anonymously download files, Bryan said he still buys CDs and attends concerts.
‘Musicians aren’t starving because of me,’ he said. ‘I buy more music than anyone.’
Sargent College of Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Rotem Ben-Ad has more than 1,000 songs downloaded but said he is not worried about getting fined or jailed for sharing files. He added that he does not think the law is fair.
‘It doesn’t seem like something that should be illegal,’ Ben-Ad said.
CAS senior Meredith Abrams said she has not thought about getting fined for the more than 1,000 songs that she has downloaded, but agrees file sharing ‘does cut into the profits of a lot of the music industry.’
But CAS sophomore Andrea Finstein, who has more than 700 files downloaded, said she no longer shares files because ‘my mom yelled at me because she thought people were getting arrested for downloading.’ Finstein said she continues to download but turned off the file sharing option.
She said she thinks some students are taking the law seriously, but doesn’t think many students know about it.
Staff writer Allison Brown contributed to this report.
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