By Lindsey Hawkins

After two Northeastern students were subpoenaed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for the downloading and sharing of copyrighted files, the administration is cracking down on file sharing, going so far as to warn incoming freshmen not to download. The RIAA filed 261 lawsuits on Monday, Sept. 8, with the promise not to relent. This increase over the past eight months has hit universities and colleges especially hard due to the well-known easy access that students have to high-performance Internet connections. Northeastern University’s Information Technology Security Manager Glenn C. Hill, is in charge of receiving and handling allegations of violations brought forth by the RIAA. Hill’s office spends about 12 weeks per year working on this issue alone and although he thinks that the amount of time spent is inordinate, he predicts a future filled with RIAA continuing its merciless litigations. “I think we’re going to see more aggression, more lawsuits, more subpoenas for information. I don’t see RIAA moving towards a cooperative relationship with customers of music nor with the technology providers that are able to provide solutions for legally sharing music,” Hill said. According to Hill, there is an estimated 60 million people in the United States currently using file sharing services. Because of this ubiquity, students feel certain that they will not be pinpointed. Alicia Meklowsky a freshman accounting major and Stephanie Politano a freshman nursing major, do not acknowledge the possible ramifications of downloading. Politano said this issue will not affect her personally. “I don’t think it will go anywhere,” she said. “I don’t think that anyone will get punished that bad or anything.” Meklowsky also said that downloading and file sharing is relatively harmless. “I would just keep the songs on my computer, listen to them while I’m here,” she said. And as far as the moral implications go, Meklowsky and Politano agreed that “musicians make plenty of money.” To protect themselves from potential law suits and subpoenas, Hill said “the best thing that students can do is to make good choices around how they choose to use technology.” He also said that it is the responsibility of each student to follow the law and to face the consequences that may closely follow if they break it. However, he said that students with over one thousand downloads are more likely to be caught. Downloaders are discovered by the RIAA merely locating the IP address of someone who may be sharing out the music. The RIAA also uses commercial software solutions to locate their copyright material on the Internet. Hill said that no protection will be offered to student offenders by the university. It will follow the letter of the law as well as the process outlined by FERPA (Family Education and Rights of Privacy Act) with no exceptions. “The university is not responsible for any activities conducted by students on its Internet connection,” he said. Although the opinions regarding the actual existing dangers differ between the faculty and the student body, both sides feel that the attempts being made by copyright enforcement agencies to sue individuals are non-productive. “I would much rather be spending my time developing new security solutions to protect students’ identities, data to better position the university to offer new services in secure ways,” Hill said. “Not that we’re not doing a great job now … because we are.”