George Washington Univ. students next to feel RIAA's wrath
The Recording Industry Association of America has expanded its litigation against college students, this time preparing to send "John Doe" subpoenas to 19 people at George Washington University.
Nineteen students at George Washington University are about to become the next targets of the recording industry's wrath.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on October 11 approved subpoenas to uncover the identity of the 19 "John Does" listed as defendants by the Recording Industry Association of America.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (best known for her role in the Microsoft antitrust trial) granted the RIAA's request to serve the university with an immediate subpoena.
She required that George Washington University to tell its students--or faculty or staff if they're the ones behind the IP addresses in question--about the existence of the subpoenas in five business days.
She also gave the school and any of the John Does 25 days to respond with a legal motion opposing the subpoena. The RIAA had suggested only 15 days.
The RIAA's full list of allegedly infringing IP addresses and dates is below. One IP address, 161.253.5.32, notably contributed a post to Wikihow.com warning not to light on fire a ping pong ball used in the "beer pong" drinking game "because it has alchol (sic) residue on it and it will burst into flames."
To be fair to the current owner of 161.253.5.32, perhaps the university rotates IP addresses instead of assigning fixed ones to each student.
Other students are fighting back against the RIAA, sometimes with some success. Some Florida students have argued that they shouldn't all have been named as defendants in a single lawsuit. Some courts have denied the record labels' requests for ex parte orders, meaning that only the RIAA is present in the courtroom.
And on Tuesday, seven alleged file-sharers at North Carolina State University banded together to file a motion jointly opposing an RIAA John Doe subpoena--a useful tactic that lets them share the costs of a legal defense.
Doe # 1 IP Address: 128.164.100.11 2007-02-02 05:59:17 EST Doe # 2 IP Address: 128.164.100.11 2007-03-05 04:29:42 EST Doe # 3 IP Address: 128.164.100.158 2007-04-14 16:57:39 EDT Doe # 4 IP Address: 128.164.100.22 2007-03-26 02:02:52 EDT Doe # 5 IP Address: 128.164.100.72 2007-05-10 00:24:36 EDT Doe # 6 IP Address: 128.164.100.76 2007-05-07 00:18:52 EDT Doe # 7 IP Address: 128.164.100.9 2007-04-29 18:19:00 EDT Doe # 8 IP Address: 128.164.102.11 2007-03-25 17:28:46 EDT Doe # 9 IP Address: 128.164.102.170 2007-02-27 20:13:57 EST Doe # 10 IP Address: 128.164.102.177 2007-03-07 15:52:17 EST Doe # 11 IP Address: 128.164.102.65 2007-04-13 10:28:59 EDT Doe # 12 IP Address: 128.164.102.86 2007-04-11 04:40:34 EDT Doe # 13 IP Address: 161.253.19.181 2007-03-24 14:31:00 EDT Doe # 14 IP Address: 161.253.34.17 2007-05-07 10:05:05 EDT Doe # 15 IP Address: 161.253.34.17 2007-05-09 00:40:25 EDT Doe # 16 IP Address: 161.253.34.17 2007-05-09 03:16:12 EDT Doe # 17 IP Address: 161.253.34.17 2007-05-11 18:22:16 EDT Doe # 18 IP Address: 161.253.34.17 2007-05-13 05:27:54 EDT Doe # 19 IP Address: 161.253.5.32 2007-04-02 04:11:49 EDT