The Recording Industry Association of America launched a new initiative Wednesday intensifying the crackdown on music theft on college campuses nationwide.
UT was listed in the association's top 25 university offenders in illegal file transfers.
The association, which represents 90 percent of U.S. recording industries, sent 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to 13 different universities Wednesday. Individual students were contacted with pre-trial negotiations, Sherman said.
The letters allow the infringer the opportunity to negotiate with the association before the lawsuit is filed for public record. RIAA sent 33 pre-litigation letters to UT on Wednesday, which they are requesting the University to forward to the students.
"The lawsuits have done more to increase awareness than anything else we've done, and numerous surveys have shown that the No. 1 reason that people have stopped illegal downloading is to avoid the risk of lawsuits," Sherman said. "It's sad that we have to do this, but it's been the most effective deterrent to date."
The industry will continue to send about 400 letters to campuses nationwide each month to deter students from pirating, said Steven Marks, general counsel and vice president of the RIAA.
Oren Bracha, a UT law professor of intellectual property law, said the association is aiming not for monetary gains but to increase deterrence.
He said if a student is charged with copyright infringement, the penalties could range from $700 to $150,000 for just one copyrighted file under federal law.
"By no means are they going against everybody. They can't sue everybody," he said. "A potential strategy is to go after the heavy downloaders, but you are not safe even if you are a light user. They are willing to go after everybody."
Marks said the association peruses the file-sharing networks for users who infringe copyright laws, and afterwards, obtains the necessary Internet protocol addresses to acquire the infringer's identity through court requests. He said students are not anonymous when using the networks.
"While our lawsuits three years ago initially focused on egregious infringers, today we do not have a minimum amount of files in order to move forward with lawsuit," Marks said.
Steve Montanez, a kinesiology freshman, said after he received e-mails from the University about his illegal file-sharing, his downloading vastly decreased.
"I understand the industry feels this is a serious issue, but when you download music, people don't realize it is a criminal offense," he said. "Now I know it's a big deal."
Some students feel the industry is alienating their clientele base and proposing a daunting task, said Erin Artz, a communication sciences and disorders graduate student.
"There were only 33 letters sent to UT? What about the thousands of other people downloading in campus?" Artz asked. "I think the problem is too widespread to fix."
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