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I wonder why RIAA is targeting 20 people at MSU and none at other
schools such as U-M.  I assume that ihub is being used at all I2
institutions.  Clearly, the RIAA tries to create a lot of publicity
around their actions.  Have they just decided that the marketing value
is higher when they target larger numbers of people at individual
institutions, or is there some other reason for the apparent
unevenness?  Maybe they decided to file 400 suits and it just saves them
work to target a reduced number of institutions, though in this case one
still has to wonder how they picked the institutions to go after.

-Tom


Richard Wiggins wrote:

> Yes, this case got a lot of attention in the media.  The Detroit News
> covered the story:
>
> http://www.detnews.com/2005/technology/0504/13/C01-148923.htm
>
> Any media outlet that picked up the wire story mentioned MSU among the
> list of schools that happened to receive RIAA complaints.  There are
> many schools connected to Abilene (Internet2 is a consortium, not a
> network, a persistent source of confusion) thus it's a matter of
> happenstance which schools receive attention for a given wave of
> lawsuits.
>
> Most of the reports talked about 405 students being sued.  I'm not
> sure how they know that.  As I understand it, the complaint from the
> RIAA gives a list of IP addresses they claim had been file sharing at
> a certain time, and asks for the names of whatever people correspond
> to those addresses.  I believe the number requested at MSU was 20.
>
> One newspaper reported that 405 "coeds" had been sued.  I didn't know
> anyone even used that word anymore.
>
> /rich
>
>
> On 4/15/05, *John Resotko* <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
>     Most of you probably saw this earlier in the week:
>
>     RIAA Flexes Its Litigious Muscle Against 405 College Students:
>     _http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050412RIAAFlexesItsLitigiousMuscleAgainst405CollegeStudents.html_
>
>
>     see also:
>     _http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Music-Group-To-Sue-Students-42276.html_
>
>
>     http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1113296707721
>
>     http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1113333701279470.xml&storylist=newsmichigan
>     <http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1113333701279470.xml&storylist=newsmichigan>
>
>     I did find it interested that Michigan State University as one of
>     the schools where students are facing suits for illegal
>     filesharing. I was curious to know if anyone out there had heard
>     any specifics regarding how many MSU students are being named in
>     the suits?
>
>
>     John A. Resotko
>     Head of Systems Administration
>     Michigan State University College of Law
>     208 Law College Building
>     East Lansing, MI  48824-1300
>     email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>     Phone: 517-432-6836
>     Fax: 517-432-6861
>
>
>
>
>