"In addition to downloading Web pages hundreds of times faster than the regular Internet, the Internet2 is apparently the fastest way to trade and download illegal copies of songs and movies.

That's why the Recording Industry Association of
America filed lawsuits against 405 students at 18 colleges in the U.S. on Wednesday, alleging that they are using the private-research network to trade pirated songs.

Not available to the public, the 7-year-old Internet2 is accessible to nearly two million college students and is currently used mostly for educational purposes and by professionals for academic research. According to the RIAA, though, students with access to Internet2 are increasingly using a file-sharing application called i2hub to "steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale," the organization said in a statement released on Tuesday. Using this application, the RIAA said students can download an entire movie in five minutes — or less — and a song in 20 seconds.

"Students find i2hub especially appealing because they mistakenly believe their illegal file-sharing activities can't be detected in the closed environment of the Internet2 network," according to the RIAA statement.

"This next generation of the Internet is an extraordinarily exciting tool for researchers, technologists and many others with valuable legitimate uses," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "Yet we cannot let this high-speed network become a zone of lawlessness where the normal rules don't apply."

The network used by Internet2 was launched in 1998 by a nonprofit consortium of 206 universities, 70 corporate partners (including IBM and Microsoft) and a number of government agencies, including the Library of Congress, to develop the next generation of Internet technologies. It has proven to be a boon for researchers because of its speed, which is anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times faster than commercial Internet connections. Studies have shown that Internet2 can be used to download a DVD-quality copy of "The Matrix" in 30 seconds, versus the 20 hours it would take on the Internet.

There are currently 4 million users, and according to Internet2 executive director Laurie Burns, each has to sign an agreement that prohibits using the network for illegal activities. Burns said Internet2's CEO was not informed until Monday night of the RIAA's plans for filing lawsuits and the organization has not been told how the RIAA was able to track the alleged infringers. "We really don't know how they did it," Burns said. "But it's not through any direct monitoring of our network and in no way did we allow them to do that." An RIAA spokesperson said the organization does not discuss its enforcement measures.

The Motion Picture Association of America is also expected to file lawsuits against Internet2 users.

In addition to the suits, the RIAA has sent warning letters to the presidents of 140 schools in 41 states warning them of illegal downloading on their campuses. It found that the students cited in the suits had illegally distributed more than 1.5 million files, which included more than 930,000 songs.

The average number of MP3s shared by the users who were sued is 2,300, with an average total number of files around 3,900, according to the RIAA. Some students had as many as 13,600 songs they were offering to share, and as many as 72,700 total files, which included music, video and software.

Burns said Internet2 is not planning to institute any extra security measures in light of the suits. "This is not, strictly speaking, a security problem," Burns said. "There are a lot of sharing applications on Abilene that are used for legitimate purposes. Like the commodity Internet, it's a mix and some illegal sharing also exists."

The students targeted in the suits attend the following universities: Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Drexel, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State, New York University, Ohio State, Princeton, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Southern California.

Though the RIAA spokesperson said the organization does not currently have plans to file more Internet2 suits, it is not ruling out future legal action. Since September 2003, the RIAA has filed 10,300 infringement cases and settled 2,200 of them (see "Colleges, RIAA Pleased With Progress In War On File-Sharing")."

From http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1500096/20050413/index.jhtml?headlines=true
Story there by Gil Kaufman

So...the MPAA and RIAA are ganging up...
Hmmmmmmm ...do tell!

"the RIAA has filed 10,300 infringement cases and settled 2,200 of them..."
WHAAAAT?

10,300...settled 2,200...that's an outstanding balance of 8,100 cases...what's going on with those?

Let's hope they are fighting!

Nothing like pissing off your most valuable demographic. Not only will many of us never buy from the RIAA again, but we also control our kids until they move out. If it comes down to it, they will simply buy used. The boycott will be multi-generational in my family.

I've been boycotting the RIAA for a few years, but this seals the deal for me. I will never purchasing RIAA material again.

That should say, "I will never purchase RIAA material again."

We need an edit button!

well i am beting hte riaa really only cares about big shot bands on large record labels who dont get to choose what style of music they create... it would b e amusing to put stickers on cd cases at cd stores declaring "this musical artist was forced to play this style of music because they are not a corprate record label and care more about money then music".. under mine the riaa that way .....

You'd be suprised. People are being sued for uploading Duran Duran and NWA.

murderswitch - same here. everything they do just reinforces it.

I decided to stop buying cd's when the napster ordeal happened. I stopped listening to the radio because one day I nearly flipped out because all I had been hearing for the last 8 months was blink182 and nickelback. I couldn't take it anymore and I despise all who listen to their music. So I turned off the radio and vowed to never listen to anything but 106.5 (smooooth jazz) ever again. One of the bands was on one station, so i changed it and it was on the other station too. Went into work and turned on the radio about 30 min later.. it was on again. I remember that moment... it was the end of FM radio for me.