The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed another 532 lawsuits against alleged Internet file sharers.

The day before its third such filing since January, RIAA sent President Mary Sue Coleman an e-mail message announcing that members of the University community are included in the latest round of lawsuits.

Within days, the University expects to receive subpoenas from RIAA, which will seek the identities of those it accuses of illegally uploading music files to the Internet. RIAA had warned the University during December and January that it would use subpoenas to obtain the identities of individuals linked to specific IP addresses within the University’s computing domain, says Assistant General Counsel Jack Bernard.

As the warnings trickled in, the University advised each person whose IP address was identified by RIAA that he or she could be the target of a lawsuit. At press time for the Record, the subpoenas had not arrived and an exact number was not known.

University policy and federal law prohibit the release of names and contact information of its computer users unless otherwise required to do so by law. If the subpoenas are substantive and procedurally valid, Bernard says, the University will be compelled to surrender the names.

“The RIAA has previously identified the University as an exemplary institution because of our successful education programs regarding peer-to-peer file sharing,” Bernard says. “Because it is how you file share—not file sharing itself—that may be illegal, the University prefers an educational approach rather than a litigious one.”

Since the first of the year, RIAA has filed at least 1,595 lawsuits against individuals it alleges have infringed the copyright of its membership by uploading music files to the Internet. Since its campaign began in June, the association has settled many suits and has granted amnesty to more than 1,000 people who came forward as part of a “Clean Slate” program.

Previous lawsuits targeted file sharers who were using commercial Internet services, not university networks, says James Hilton, associate provost for academic, information and instructional technology affairs. The suits filed this month targeted file sharers at 21 colleges and universities. The lawsuits have been filed against individuals, not the universities whose networks were used, he says.

Hilton’s office, the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and several campus computing departments have amassed resources for students and University employees, explaining what is appropriate file sharing and what is not. Guidelines can be found at http://www.rescomp.umich.edu, http://www.umich.edu/~itua/ and http://www.copyright.umich.edu.