The University notified more than 15 students last week that it will be handing over their personal information to the Recording Industry Association of America so the organization can sue the students for illegal music downloads.
The notification ends a high-profile showdown between the University and the RIAA. The University originally refused to release student information to the RIAA because the RIAA’s request required the University to assist with the investigation. The University can no longer withhold information because the RIAA modified its request and the University agreed that the subpoena does not violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The decision has left the students afraid.
“I’m just worried because I know that these companies have a lot of money that they’re just going to face-crush me into the ground and I won’t have a say in it,” said a University junior who received the letter.
The junior, who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid legal conflicts, said she is just one of 22 students accused of copyright infringement. The students are associated with 17 University Internet Protocol addresses obtained by the RIAA.
In compliance with the subpoena, today the University must release the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses to the attorneys representing the record companies involved in the lawsuit, according to e-mails sent to the junior by the University General Counsel’s office.
The junior said that in the next few days, she doubts she will be able to think of anything else.
“In a sense, I am not legally under my parents’ name anymore except for when it comes to University documents,” she said. “That means I would be the one who is financially responsible for any claims brought against me, which means I could potentially have to file for bankruptcy at age 21 if they decide to take me to court.”
The junior said that for about $3,000 or $4,000 the students could choose to settle with the RIAA instead of taking the case to court.
The RIAA obtained student IP addresses from University dorms, the University’s wireless network and other locations at the University, the e-mail said. The junior said the charges are based on each IP address having illegally downloaded music available for uploading and file sharing.
According to the junior, the students have until Oct. 20 to petition the subpoena. It remains unclear why the particular 17 IP addresses were chosen by the RIAA, as the RIAA did not respond to the inquiry before Monday’s deadline.
The junior said her IP address is cited for illegally obtaining about seven or eight songs, which she denies because she said she doesn’t listen to music from major record labels. The University sent the students an e-mail on Monday notifying them of the songs they are accused of downloading.
“I don’t have Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ on my computer,” she said. “I never had any of the songs at any time listed with my IP address.”
Jacob Weigler, the executive assistant to Oregon’s attorney general, said challenges could arise when trying to identify who the exact computer user was who obtained the illegal music from the IP addresses. The University, which was represented by the Oregon Attorney General’s office, challenged the RIAA’s first subpoena because it was asking the University to undertake investigative tasks, Weigler said.
The court granted the University’s request, noting that it was an unreasonable burden to have the University conduct such an investigation, Weigler said.
In November 2007, the University refused to release the student information to the RIAA. In a memorandum in support of the motion to quash the RIAA’s November subpoena, the University said it would be burdensome to find out who was using the computer at the time of the illegal download.
“While the University can determine which individuals are assigned to a given dorm room where an IP address is used, IP addresses are not assigned to individual students and University cannot determine who is using a given IP address at a given time from its existing electronic records,” the memorandum said.
The RIAA, however, rewrote its requests in the subpoena, eliminating the language that suggested the University investigate on the RIAA’s behalf, Weigler said. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan accepted the revised subpoena and the University was forced to comply, he said.
The University listed numerous legal arguments for why it couldn’t comply with the first subpoena, but none were accepted except for the one stating the University cannot act as an investigator, Weigler said. “The University exhausted legal arguments regarding why it can’t turn over the student information,” he said.
Randy Geller, an attorney in the University’s General Counsel office, also said the University did all that it could to protect its students. “Neither the Oregon Department of Justice lawyers nor the University’s lawyers believe the University has an adequate basis to object to the revised subpoena that the RIAA issued,” Geller said in an e-mail.
In the e-mail, Geller also said the University strives to limit the number of students who engage in illegal downloading.
“The University takes strong actions regarding illegal downloading and to monitor and to take action in response to students who illegally download music (and) videos,” Geller said in the e-mail.
Currently, students can lose internet privileges for illegal downloading, and Geller explained that the University will explore new ways to educate students about illegal downloading and file sharing in the future.
In February 2007, the RIAA launched a program to target illegal file sharing on college campuses. More than half of college students in 2006 illegally downloaded music and movies, according to an RIAA press release.
The program sends letters to universities around the country to give students an opportunity to know they have been identified by the RIAA for illegal downloading. The junior said she never received such a warning.
The amount of monetary damage that each of the 17 downloaders caused the RIAA is unknown, as the question was not answered before deadline. According to an RIAA news release, online music piracy causes the U.S. economy $12 billion in economic losses each year. In addition, 71, 060 U.S. jobs are lost from music piracy, cutting $2.7 billion workers’ earnings, the release said.
The junior said she hopes the University can find some other way to help her and the other students.
“Dropping a few grand on a lawyer to represent me, or dropping a few grand for a settlement, is not a feasible option for a student,” she said.
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