The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is in for a fight from at least two prestigious American campuses and maybe more. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College both filed motions to quash RIAA peer-to-peer file swapping subpoenas in federal court July 21, aiming to stop the recording industry from prying the identities of campus P2Pers out of the campuses themselves.
The two schools moved after receiving four such subpoenas, three to Boston College and one to MIT, according to Wired. "The subpoenas were not issued from the federal court in Boston," said Boston College public affairs director Jack Dunn to Wired, "and they did not give us reasonable time to inform the students in question, which is their right under federal law."
The RIAA began cranking up the subpoena machinery in its war against the P2P community last month, after an earlier court ruling saying they could subpoena on copyright violation instances without a judge's signature. But the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act lets schools provide student information only after students get "reasonable" prior notice, according to Dunn, who said his school isn't trying to protect students from copyright infringement consequences but is trying to secure proper procedure involving their students.
The RIAA, perhaps needless to say, was less than thrilled by the MIT and Boston College motions. Spokesman Jonathan Lamy said in a statement the RIAA would respond "as necessary" in court. "We're disappointed that these universities have chosen to litigate this and thus denied us and other copyright holders the rights clearly granted to us by Congress," Lamy sai
Another campus, Boston University, received an RIAA subpoena filed in Washington, but a university spokesman told Wired they wouldn't answer in Washington. "We comply with subpoenas issued in the jurisdiction in which we reside," said spokesman Colin Riley to Wired. "We expect that will be the case here."
Boston University received one RIAA subpoena, as did Northwestern University, while Bentley College, another Massachusetts school, received three, the magazine said. And DePaul University in Chicago, after getting their RIAA subpoena, told the magazine they had "insufficient information" to identify the P2Per who was the subject of that subpoena.
