The Recording Industry Association of America this month fired off 569 “pre-litigation settlement letters” to college students whom it suspected of pirating music. The letters appear to be the largest batch sent since the RIAA began an expanded campaign in February 2007.
Most previous waves of letters went to about 400 students each, according to press releases on the RIAA’s Web site. Students who receive such letters are identified after RIAA investigators download music available on the students’ computers, said Jonathan Lamy, and RIAA spokesman.
Whether merely making a song “available,” without proof that another party has illegally copied and downloaded it, constitutes copyright infringement has been questioned in several recent court decisions.