College students are likely to be targeted more often, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said during an online press conference.

With the filing of another 532 lawsuits Tuesday, the RIAA has included for the first time college students, numbering 89 in total from 21 different colleges.

For Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, the reasons are clear. “College campuses have been a very attractive place for file-sharing because of free and unlimited bandwidth,” Sherman said. “Statistics posted by universities about the usage of their networks confirms that 60-70% and more is being consumed by file-sharing. And record stores near college campuses have been complaining loudly about the impact of illegal downloading on their businesses.”

The latest round of lawsuits, following recent legal action by the RIAA, have been filed as “John Doe” suits, where only an IP address is provided and the student is assumedly identified later. Sherman says that, although not required, generally people aren’t in the dark if they’re being sued. “We have encouraged all ISPs and universities to notify the defendants that their identity is being sought,” Sherman noted. In previous rounds of lawsuits, ISPs have been generally willing to notify their users in advance of the attempts by the RIAA to identify and sue them.

Currently, no students in Connecticut have been targeted. This is mainly due to the fact that the RIAA is currently targeting their lawsuits in jurisdictions where they are already processing other suits. Yet while Fairfield students have not been targeted so far, the RIAA hasn’t ruled out further litigation. Sherman said, “This is an ongoing program. It won’t end with the settlement of these cases.”

The Mirror will be offering a more in-depth look at the RIAA’s latest round of lawsuits, as well as what Fairfield’s doing about illegal downloading. Be sure to visit The Mirror Online as more information becomes available.

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