A recent spike in online-piracy notifications from the Recording Industry Association of America has mystified college officials. Some say they wonder whether the increase is part of a strategy to persuade Congress to make colleges crack down on students who download music illegally.
But Cary Sherman, president of the industry group, said in an interview on Tuesday that even the association has been surprised by the timing of the sharp increase in notifications, which he said was caused by an upgrade in the software used by a company the association hired to detect piracy.
"There's just no connection to anything that's happening in Congress, in the courts, or anything else," Mr. Sherman said. He added that the increase in notifications did not mean that there had been a sudden rise in campus piracy. "We don't see anything that's changed, other than that the detection engine has been improved, and therefore it's picking up more infringement than it did before," he said.
"We're constantly asking our vendor to improve performance," Mr. Sherman said. "They just completed work on an upgrade and, poof, it just happened."
About two weeks ago, colleges around the country began reporting a sudden increase in the number of complaints from the industry group that a specific song had been illegally traded by a computer user on the campus. College officials say that some film studios have also suddenly started sending more notifications that movies are being pirated. Most colleges investigate every complaint and take some kind of action against the online pirates.
Piracy Provisions
On several electronic mailing lists for college administrators, officials have asked whether the RIAA is using the increase in notifications to highlight the scope of the piracy issue on campuses. That could help the organization make its case as members of Congress debate a provision in the Higher Education Act that would require colleges to buy computer tools to detect student music and video piracy. Colleges would also have to offer students subscription-based music services. Many college officials, however, say that piracy happens all over the Internet, not just at colleges, and that they are being unfairly singled out.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a version of the bill that includes the provision, which many college groups have fought against, but the U.S. Senate version did not contain it. Legislators are now hammering out a compromise bill, which is expected to be unveiled in the next two to three weeks.
"I can't help but wonder if the sudden increase in copyright-infringement claims coming from a variety of sources at a time when the Higher Education Act is on the verge of completion—that the two things are purely coincidental," said Martin D. Ringle, chief technology officer at Reed College, in an interview. If the legislation passes with the provision intact, "copyright holders and the entertainment industry will in fact have the regulatory tool that they've been seeking for a long time."
Some college administrators have also reported that more of the latest notices seem to be erroneous than has been the case in the past. "While there is always a chance of an incorrect infringement claim—these do happen from time to time—the frequency of incorrect notices seems to have risen lately," says Mr. Ringle.
Mr. Sherman disputed the notion that there are more false positives now than in the past. "Obviously I can't rule that out without looking at the evidence, but we know that the techniques that are used give us a high degree of confidence that the infringement as detected is accurate," he said. "We haven't seen any evidence of any inaccuracy yet. We take very seriously the accuracy of the process because we understand that universities are relying on that accuracy in order to take further steps."
Steven L. Worona, director of policy and networking programs at Educause, a higher-education technology group that has been fighting the Higher Education Act's piracy provisions, said he had no reason to doubt the RIAA's explanations about the sudden rise in notifications. But the situation also shows, he said, that the number of notifications sent out by the entertainment industry has no bearing on the amount of piracy happening on campuses.
