Wednesday, the Collegiate Presswire reported that 20 Vanderbilt students were being sent pre-litigation letters.

This event marks the newest event in an escalating initiative by the RIAA to crack down on illegal file sharing on college campuses. The new campaign, started last month, involves educational and deterrence-based initiatives including a new “pre-litigation” system that gives students an opportunity to resolve copyright complaints at a “discounted rate” and avoid any legal entanglements.

This system is described as a “win-win” for both the students and the RIAA. If the student decides to settle out of court, then the lawsuit does not go on record, and it saves money in legal fees. Pre-litigation letters were sent to some 405 students at 23 separate universities.

RIAA President, Cary Sherman, had this to say about the new program: “This is not our preferred course, but we hope that students will understand the consequences of stealing music and that our partners in the college community will appreciate the proactive role they can play.”

This step up in the RIAA anti-piracy campaign comes hardly a month after it released a list of the Top 25 Pirate Universities in late February. Ohio State topped the list with some 1,287 copyright infringement letters sent out during the 2006-2007 school year (so far). Also on the list was University of Tennessee at Knoxville with 959 letters and Harvard with 572 letters. Vanderbilt’s recent 20 letters indicate that the university is more of a blip on the radar than a significant threat. The twenty-fifth school on the list was Marshall University with 331 notices, so at Vandy’s current rate, it will be awhile before the school reaches such a position of fame.

RIAA lawsuits are not unknown to Vandy. When asked if any Vanderbilt student has even been involved in an RIAA lawsuit in the past, the Director of IT Support for the Dean of Students, F. Clark Williams responded, “We did have a couple of students a few years ago…they settled with the RIAA, one for $10,000, the other for $25,000." If this pre-litigation policy had been in place when these students were caught, they might have saved thousands of dollars.

According to university policy, when a student is found guilty of copyright infringement, their Internet access is disabled until they comply with certain demands. These demands usually involve removing file sharing software from their computer and writing an email confirming this. Recent figures indicate that Vanderbilt deactivates around 50 computers per week in response to copyright complaints. In an effort to stem this seemingly unstoppable tide it has been suggested that Vanderbilt start charging students to reactivate their Internet connections. Student response to this action remains negative.

Vanderbilt currently offers several legal music downloading options, including VUmix and FreshTracksMusic. Read more at www.vanderbilt.edu/digitallife.