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USF Makes Strides To Cut File-Sharing

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 22, 2007

TAMPA - When it comes to music piracy, the recording industry has spent the past year singling out students at the University of South Florida as being among the worst offenders at schools nationwide.

After this school year began, however, representatives of the world's largest record labels shared with USF leaders what seemed good news: They were pleased with the university's efforts to contain the problem.

Yet the record labels have shown little sign of letting up their fight against USF students they have caught illegally swapping music online.

The Recording Industry Association of America continues to send threats of legal action to USF students at a higher rate than all but one university in the United States.

Since the start of 2007, the recording industry has sent 124 USF students the same ominous notice, accusing each of music piracy and demanding a settlement of $3,000. Failing to do so, the letters warned, would result in a costly lawsuit.

"How do they expect a student to pay that type of outrageous bill when they're going to school?" said Nathaniel Dudley, whose son, Austin, a USF prelaw student, is being sued by several record labels accusing him of music piracy. "You know they don't have any money. They're exploiting these students."

The recording industry began its legal campaign against college students in February, and USF was among its first targets. For years, it had sent the university complaints that its students using the campus computer network were illegally sharing music online. Of the 25 schools that received the most copyright infringement complaints, USF ranked No. 11.

Michael Pearce, USF's new chief technology officer, told faculty leaders at an Oct. 17 meeting that the recording industry now ranked the university 92nd in copyright complaints.

The next day, however, the Recording Industry Association of America sent 43 USF students the letters threatening litigation and urging them to settle. The letters represent a more serious and expensive threat than the copyright complaints, and are typically reserved for more egregious violations, a recording industry spokeswoman said.

The university has yet to launch software meant to block students from illicitly sharing songs online. In responding to reports that too many of her students were pirating music, USF President Judy Genshaft in May said that the software, developed by a Florida company, would be running by the fall semester.

Stakes Could Become More Costly

Pearce, who started his job at USF eight weeks ago, said the university is still negotiating terms of the agreement with the software developer, Red Lambda. The software, which may cost the university up to $75,000 a year to operate, should be running by the end of the month. "It's just not an overnight process," Pearce said.

Once up, it will detect students visiting a file-sharing Web site such as Limewire or BitTorrent and direct them to a page demanding to know why they visited the site. If they fail to respond, they will be booted off the campus network.

The University of Florida was among the first to use the software, and long enjoyed staying out of trouble with the recording industry. UF launched the software, which it helped develop, in 2003. Prior to that, it had received an average 50 copyright complaints a month.

The software hasn't kept all UF students out of trouble, however. Four of them received the same threats of litigation sent to the 124 USF students.

The stakes could become more costly for the schools as well as students. The U.S. House recently proposed penalizing colleges and universities a portion of the federal financial aid their students receive unless the schools do more to rein in piracy committed through their computer networks.

Cara Duckworth, a recording industry spokeswoman, said that the "problem of piracy is disproportionately acute on college campuses" and that the threats of litigation "is a step that is necessary to take."

"Too many of these students take advantage of these networks," Duckworth added.

USF defends its efforts by noting that it takes a harder line against music pirates - even those who don't face lawsuits from the record labels.

If found pirating music just once, a USF student faces discipline from the school's judicial services office, which metes out discipline for various infractions. Before the recording industry shined its spotlight on the university, a student faced discipline after three offenses. USF officials won't say how they discipline these students.

Pearce said that no USF student escapes hearing the message that uploading, downloading and sharing music online without paying for it is illegal. New students hear it at orientation. E-mails about copyright infringement are sent to the 6,000 students registered to use the campus network.

"We are putting in a significant amount of effort into dealing with these issues," Pearce said.

Free Music, With A Catch

USF also made available a free music downloading service to students at the beginning of the fall semester. The service, the Ruckus Network, enables students to tap into a free library of 3 million songs, and is in use at 170 colleges and universities nationwide.

Nearly 7,000 USF students who have a university e-mail account signed up to use the service, and the university recently announced that those students downloaded 1 million songs so far this semester. On average, USF students download about 10,700 songs off Ruckus a day.

However, there's a catch: Although the songs are free, the music cannot run on Apple's ubiquitous iPod. It's free to listen to the music on the computer, but songs can only run on another portable media player if students pay Ruckus a $20 fee every semester. A Ruckus spokesman, Tim Hurley, wouldn't say how many USF students pay the fee, but conceded that the number is low.

Over the coming months, Pearce said that USF will watch how these new measures will affect students' behavior and launch more stringent policies, if necessary.

In that time, the number of lawsuits against USF students likely will rise. So far, the recording industry has filed 54 "John Doe" lawsuits against USF students. A "John Doe" lawsuit enables the record labels to file a complaint with the federal court in Tampa and later subpoena the student by name.

To date, only one student has been named as a defendant, Austin Dudley of USF. Record labels including Sony BMG Music Entertainment have accused Dudley, 20, of illegally downloading and sharing 578 songs online.

Dudley denied downloading that many songs. After he received the letter offering a $3,000 settlement, his mother, Prenzial Dudley, said there was no negotiating with the recording industry.

His parents, knowing others had access to Dudley's computer in his USF dormitory, wouldn't settle. "I feel like they were exploiting us," Prenzial said. Yet she worries her son will share the same fate as a Minnesota woman, Jammie Thomas. A jury last month ordered Thomas, 30, to pay $222,000 to six record companies after jurors found she illegally downloaded copyrighted music.

"I'm fearful of the outcome of this for Austin," Prenzial said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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