The latest wave of the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits began on Tuesday, and at least one Georgetown student became the target of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Neither the RIAA nor the University, however, knows the name of the student. The student is a defendant in a “John Doe” lawsuit, meaning that the RIAA has filed a lawsuit against the offending internet provider address.
The name of the address owner will be revealed later in the case.
“We have, for the past 10 months, been utilizing the ‘John Doe’ litigation process, which is a quite common legal tool used when the plaintiff doesn’t know the defendant’s name,” Lamy said.
Lamy said that deterrence, not financial gain, is the motivation behind this lawsuit or the recent flurry of others.
“We pursue substantial or egregious violators,” Lamy said.
The individual is generally offered the opportunity to settle with the RIAA following the subpoena before further legislative action is taken, Lamy said.
“They can expect to provide monetary compensation and to agree to an injunction,” he added.
The RIAA does not find all of the offending IP Addresses on its own. Instead, a number of private watchdog groups help locate and report illegal file-sharers, according to Judy Johnson, the Director of the Office of Student Conduct.
Matthew Zimmerman, Staff Attorney for the pro-file-sharing Electronic Frontier Foundation, cited the Business Software Alliance as one of the most prominent anti-piracy groups working with the RIAA.
According to Zimmerman, the watchdog groups help promote grassroots reporting of illegal file-sharing.
On its website, the BSA reports that last year alone they received 57,625 calls, followed up on almost 8,000 leads and took legal action against over 9,000 companies alone.
According to Georgetown’s Director of Media Relations Laura Cavender, University staff are not immune to the implications of the copyright laws and to the RIAA’s attacks.
“Employees sharing copyrighted materials, using university systems and/or equipment, put the university at risk,” she said.
