SOURCE
"Bay-TSP, a company that monitors online and copyrighted works, compiled the number of infringement infractions in its annual report. Using the IP addresses of violators, Bay-TSP, as well as companies like the RIAA, are able to hone in on copyright violations by individual universities.

In the U.S., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped the list with 2,593 total content infringements. Penn followed four slots down with 961.

As of last September, 114 Penn students had received pre-litigation letters from the RIAA for such violations, with the RIAA demanding a fine of about $3,000 to avoid a potential lawsuit. The University responded with the lawn sign campaign last fall, but little appears to have changed.

The content of the study, however, goes beyond illegally downloaded songs. Clients of Bay-TSP, and thus the targets of infringement, include motion-picture studios, software and video-game companies, and sports and pay-per-view television networks.

Given its broad nature, the study fails to filter academia from personal use. English and Cinema Studies professor Peter Decherney, whose research includes government regulation of Hollywood, suggested that such network monitoring may "cast too broad a net and might filter out material that might be fair use."

As of right now, the RIAA asks the University to identify students who have violated such copyright laws while on the campus network and forward pre-litigation letters to those students. However, beyond forwarding the letters, the University has no further interaction with students.

Decherney said he has mixed feelings regarding the University's role in stepping in. "One the one hand, the University is a place where there needs to be a free and open cache of information," he said. "On the other hand, the University is an internet provider."

The current policy leaves students subject to the ruling of the RIAA - and the potentially hefty price tags associated with such songs - as the group looks to curb illegal downloading on campuses.

Others, such as Harvard University Law professor Charles Nesson, argue that current punishments set for file-sharing display are an abuse of process, as damages set are often obscenely high, without actual proof of damage by the file sharer."
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I've said it a million times. Bullies, like the RIAA, will push you and push you,
until you get a bunch of your friends and through solidarity, flex political and
economic muscle. Does ANYONE believe that individual citizens still control our government?
If we control it, in reality and not in name only, its time for us to push the issue.
Everyone can contact their state and federal senators and representatives and give them the sense of the electorate and of their constituency. Let them know that WE (the big WE, not just you and your friend in your neighborhood) are TIRED of the copyright cartel threatening citizens. Norway is leading the way in saying that personal privacy is more important than
Big Business dreams of controlling everything in the world.

Protecting PRIVACY is more important than playing like you are fighting PIRACY (although,
it is not "piracy" but alleged copyright infringement. Legal definition of PIRACY-
http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/p050.htm
"PIRACY (BY U.S. CITIZEN) - Whoever, being a citizen of the U.S., commits any murder or robbery, or any act of hostility against the U.S., or against any citizen thereof, on the high seas, under color of any commission from any foreign prince, or state, or on pretense of authority from any person, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for life. 18 USC "