Imagine going to your campus mailbox, hoping there might be a card with a check in it from your grandmother. Instead, you find an official-looking letter, demanding that you pay $6,000 for all of those songs you illegally downloaded for your iPod.

This is a reality for 5,000 students nationwide. The Recording Industry Association of America [RIAA] is once again after college students. It has sent letters to 100 students from Connecticut colleges alone, insisting they pay between $3,000 and $6,000 for illegally shared music or movies.

Most of the students targeted are from the University of Connecticut. The letters require students to pay the fine within 20 days or they will be sued by the RIAA.

As for Fairfield students, no claims have been made yet, according to Dean of Students Thomas Pellegrino.

This does not mean that Fairfield students are not finding ways to illegally download music, even with the RIAA threatening major fines.

“When I download music, I don’t share any of it so I can’t get in trouble,” said Michael Jude ‘10. “I just keep it for my own personal use.”

Fairfield does not monitor its network for illegal downloading and expects that network users understand and observe all copyright laws and licensing restrictions as stated in the school’s Acceptable Use Policy in the student handbook, according to Pellegrino and Don Adams, assistant vice president for Computing and Network Services, in a letter to the students they co-authored.

Other students said the risk is just not worth it.

“I download music on iTunes. I would rather pay the $1 for a song than a $3000 fine,” said Laura DeFrancesco ‘08.

Just because Fairfield students were not targeted in this round of letters, this does not mean that it is not possible in the future.

Fairfield students did receive letters when the RIAA initiated the process of targeting college students in the spring of 2007.

Last year, 15 unlucky Fairfield students were targeted for sharing copyrighted music.

Any student who receives a letter is individually responsible for responding to the letter and settling the claim with RIAA directly.

“We are not party to claims made by the RIAA against individual users,” said Pellegrino. “We have encouraged students and student organizations to learn more about this area for their own benefit, and be advocates for themselves.”