Identifying Music Violators

Computer users around the world have shared digital MP3 files of copyrighted recordings using peer-to-peer (P2P) applications such as KaZaA, Morpheus, Grokster, and eDonkey. The current generation of P2P file-sharing programs allows an Internet user to search through MP3 libraries of other users with no Web site involved (as was the case with Napster).

The Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) began to go after individual users of P2P file-sharing programs due to the copyright infringement of their members' music. In order to pursue these individuals, the RIAA must be able to identify the ones sharing and trading files using these P2P programs. The RIAA can obtain the screen name of an individual and use the IP address associated with that screen name to trace the user to the ISP. Only the ISP can link the IP address with the name and address of the person doing the infringement. Using the provisions of Section 512(h) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the RIAA can subpoena an ISP to compel it to disclose the names of subscribers whom the RIAA has reason to believe are infringing the copyrights of its members.

The RIAA has sent letters and filed lawsuits against several hundred of these individuals, each of whom may have made available for download hundreds, sometimes thousands, of MP3 files of copyrighted recordings.

Texas Tech complies with the DMCA.