Vanderbilt Students to receive a round of RIAA Letters

Fueled in part by its success in Virgin v. Thomas, the RIAA (on behalf of EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) issued a new round of pre-litigation letters to college students across the country Thursday of last week. This is its ninth such round of letters since beginning the campaign against downloaders nearly two years ago. This round included letters to 32 students at Nashville’s prestigious Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt received the third greatest quantity of letters in this round, behind University of Southern Florida, with 43 and Southern California with 37.

In addition to those three institutions, the RIAA also sent letters to these 16 schools (quantity in parentheses): Drexel University (17 pre-litigation settlement letters), Indiana University (23), Northern Illinois University (25), Occidental College (19), State University of New York at Morrisville (18), Texas Christian University (20), Tufts University (15), University of Alabama (14), University of California, Berkeley (19), University of Delaware (18), University of Georgia (13), University of Iowa (18), University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (20), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (13), University of New Hampshire (30), University of New Mexico (17).

As with the more than 3,500 letters previously sent to college students at other schools, the letters gives students the opportunity to resolve copyright infringement claims against them at a discounted settlement rate before the threatened lawsuit is filed against them. The letters are accompanied by instructions to the university administrators to forward the letter to the appropriate individuals the give them the opportunity to promptly resolve the matter and avoid a lawsuit.