Campus reacts to RIAA threats

Many confused about high number of possible lawsuits

By: Brian Reisinger

Posted: 4/5/07

Editor's Note: This is an expanded version of a story that ran in the Leader-Telegram on Monday and is reprinted with permission.

Junior Brianna Schieve knows illegal file sharing is common among her peers, but she was surprised to hear that students at UW-Eau Claire lead the UW System in potential lawsuits.

"I think it's weird that we would have so many more (than) bigger schools," she said.

Students and officials remain perplexed by Eau Claire's prominence in the RIAA's spate of lawsuit threats, with possible causes including university policy, students' view of file sharing and the RIAA's own methods.

The university recently received 22 warnings of potential lawsuits against students, while schools such as UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison - roughly two and four times larger, respectively - garnered 16 each.

Eau Claire also ranked 14th on a list the RIAA compiled in February of the 25 universities it has sent the most general violation notifications to.

The RIAA, which tracks offenders by their Internet Protocol addresses and depends on universities to contact students, is guarded about its investigation methods, leaving officials across the System confused.

"I simply don't know why (Eau Claire) had so many letters sent," System Chief Information Officer Ed Meachen said.

A Leader-Telegram review showed that Eau Claire addresses server regulation differently than many universities.

Officials at Madison, UW-La Crosse and UW-Stout all said they have bandwidth restrictions - either on their residence halls or on peer-to-peer file sharing - that slow sharing speeds and prioritize Internet use.

Eau Claire doesn't restrict specific activity or parts of its server, though it will hamper down on users taking up large amounts of bandwidth for a long time, Chief Information Officer Chip Eckardt said.

"There are a number of legitimate reasons (for peer-to-peer file sharing)," Eckardt said. "Our philosophy is we don't look at content."

Many universities deny access to possible offenders, an approach Eau Claire is working to include in its protocol.

Eau Claire officials, who pride themselves on the university's Internet access and say further regulation may limit legitimate academic activity, think students at Eau Claire simply don't understand the consequences.

"There are some downsides to those 'content management' solutions," said Craig Mey, director of Learning and Technology Services. "We may not have done as thorough of a job (raising awareness) as some other campuses have."

Milwaukee - which focuses heavily on educating students about the issue - reported little restriction and still received fewer pre-litigation notices.

RIAA spokeswoman Jenni Engebretson dispelled thoughts among officials that Eau Claire underwent review at a "high traffic" time, saying the review didn't go school-by-school.

The discrepancy in potential lawsuits also has some questioning the RIAA's methods.

"You would think that based on the (size), Eau Claire would have a considerably smaller portion," said Brian Rust, communication manager for the Division of Information Technology at Madison. "That says to me it's entirely up to the RIAA."

Senior Stephen Hilger, director of the Information Technology Commission, went further, saying he thinks the RIAA is focusing on Eau Claire because of perceived lax policies.

"That's why it's happening - they want policy change," Hilger said.

Engebretson would not say definitively what the criterion for action entails, though she denied any sort of student "targeting."

"I'm not going to get into the specific details of our investigative process," Engebretson said. "We target the illegal activity, not individual student populations."