By: Spacelab Research Staff
After a lot of ISP's chose not to comply with requests from the RIAA to not fork over the names of people suspected of illegally downloading music, some universities have decided to follow the same idea.
They're responding to a recent RIAA legal action request that targeted 400 students at campuses around the country.
Some universities are saying that they will not support illegal activity, but are also saying that they will track people down for the RIAA just because they've received requests to do so.
I guess the word on the street is that the universities aren't looking to take care of someone else's business for them. Universities aren't really ISP's, even when they are providing Internet service for their students. It's part of a larger service they're providing for students, not the only service.
With that in mind, the University of Wisconsin Madison will not turn over any student names on request, only with a subpoena. The University of Nebraska will offer student names on request, but will charge $11 a student to process those requests.
While you should pay for any music that's not being offered for free by the band, record label, or PR peeps (consider if you would work for free), the RIAA should not really expect universities to step and fetch for them. Why would anyone want to do someone else's dirty work for them for free? Especially when big labels have teams of corporate lawyers to do exactly that for them?
