Wednesday, April 13, 2005

RIAA Files New File Sharing Lawsuits Against Internet2 Users

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) yesterday announced that it is filing lawsuits today against 405 students at 18 different colleges across the country. The lawsuits target file swapping on the next generation Internet2 high speed computer network using the i2hub file sharing application. The group said that it was targeting the students because the Internet2 was becoming the network of choice for students eager to trade copyrighted songs, music, and movies. The speed of the Internet2 means that swapping a movie using the i2hub application takes only 5 minutes, and a song less than 20 seconds -- making it even easier to swap illegal files. The initial lawsuits are being filed include students at UC San Diego and the University of Southern California (USC), in addition to Harvard, MIT, and others. The RIAA also said that it has evidence of file sharing at 140 schools in 41 states, and will be issuing letters to those schools warning them of the activity.

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