RIAA encourages colleges to cooperate

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began a new stage of struggle against file - exchangers. The main target this time became college students. RIAA sent to students of thirteen schools 400 letters with proposals to resolve conflicts in the pre-trial order. Moreover, principals of colleges and head of universities received letters for the Association, in which record companies encourage them to join forces in the war against file-exchange, reports Ars Technica. RIAA believes that the education institutions should use special technology solutions for the eradication of music piracy because it is exactly students and pupils according to the record companies` opinion, who are the most active users of peering networks. Universities must also ensure that students have moderate alternative to file-exchange free services. A vivid example of such a service is a free service of music downloading Ruckus, which is supported by advertising. It was launched at the end of January, and the music was provided by such companies as Sony BMG, Warner Bros, Universal and EMI. To download songs for free, students must register by entering their e-mail address in the domain .edu, which is given specially to the educational institutions. All songs on the Ruckus, are held the Windows Media format and are protected against copying, that is why are available for listening only on the computer. For copying one should pay $4.99. However, experience has shown that young people are not very attracted to such services. In 2005, the Ruckus service was tested in one of american schools, and nearly half of the students ignored it, preferring file-exchange. Last week the RIAA launched www.p2plawsuits.com site. This resource should help users of file-sharing networks to simplify the process of the pre-trial settlement of a conflict. P2plawsuits.com website is intended primarily for the defendants of such companies` suits as EMI Music, SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. These defendants are students, which names were given by Universities and users “betrayed” by providers.