Copyright decisions impel colleges to trace the music.

Like other dorm residents at the University of California at Riverside, Adam Ansari recently found himself in the warpath of the entertainment industry.

He says campus administrators reduced his access to the school's network because he downloaded too many music files from the Internet.

Ansari also claims they erased his dorm neighbor's computer hard drive after discovering the student's collection of copyrighted movies being offered free for others to download.

"They're watching the files. They say they aren't allowed to monitor what's on the networks, and this file watching is not advertised," said Ansari.

University officials admit to acting on stepped-up complaints in recent weeks from the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, as those industry groups have become more aggressive in ferreting out unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.

In the wake of recent court decisions, the music industry has shifted its anti-piracy efforts to the dorm rooms by filing lawsuits against students and putting pressure on the universities themselves. In targeting students, they've forced schools into the role of chief enforcer - one that puts the schools in an uncomfortable legal position, but which they are taking on nonetheless.

"The premise of a central administrative authority deciding if particular data flow is legal or illegal is troubling," said Charles Rowley, associate vice chancellor of computing and communications at UC Riverside.

Nevertheless, UC Riverside has been cutting off students who use too much bandwidth, Rowley said. As for erasing illegal files from students' computers, he added, "Sometimes someone comes in and cleans it up if a student's computer has something it shouldn't have." Rowley declined to comment on specific instances of this happening.

Legal questions

The law is fuzzy. Privacy laws restrict the interception of data. But decades-old copyright laws say both the lawbreakers and those who provide the networks can be held accountable.

Under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, schools operating as Internet service providers must take action on infringement notices sent by RIAA and are restricted from manipulating content flowing on their networks.

Universities with extensive broadband networks -- the kind that allow fast downloading of files containing music, movies or television shows -- may expose themselves to liability if they monitor content, said Oscar Cisneros, a lawyer at Perkins Cole in San Francisco.

"The schools are in a difficult position," he said. "Bandwidth controls are less likely to implicate liability but could run afoul of First Amendment rights."

After failing last month to outlaw certain file-sharing software in court, the industry is stepping up the pressure on individual users.

In April, the federal District Court for the Central District of California turned down the RIAA's motion to outlaw Grokster and Streamcast, two popular file sharing services that are commonly used for illegal downloading of copyrighted content.

The court decided that the companies were not at fault for the use of their software, according to lawyers who studied the verdict. 'They said it's just like how VCR manufacturers are not liable for what their users do," Cisneros said.

The music industry says the court decision gives them no choice but to go after students. "I think the court interpreted copyright law incorrectly. They said we should go after the people using the flles' said Rick Cames, president of the Songwriters Guild of America.

Carnes is a plaintiff in a new case against Australia-based Sharman Networks, maker of Kazaa, another popular file sharing software. The case is to be heard this fall. "Everything hangs on this now. If this falls through the only choice is to go after individuals," said Carnes.

For now, the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America are doing the spying, and relying on universities to do enforcement.

The RLAA uses software that can track the locations of computers housing their copyrighted material. One common software, Media Enforcer, allows the recording industry to type in the name of a song and receive a list of Internet addresses where illegal files are located. Cames says he once typed in the name of a song and got 300 addresses. He says he keeps a list in case he ever wants to take legal action.

UCLA's IT department now receives dozens of claims of copyright infringement per month from the RIAA, a marked increase over last year, said Jim Davis, the school's vice chancellor of information technology.

The claims list everything from the location of a student's computer to the type of file downloaded. The school is required under copyright law to correct the problem -- usually with a written warning to the offender.

"Even a few titles downloaded on a computer are getting noticed," said Davis.

Davis is preparing to send all students and faculty a written notice of RIAA's recent aggressiveness toward campus copyright violators. While the school already warns them against file sharing when they sign up to receive network access, he says many fail to realize the seriousness of the problem.

Use of instant messaging services, another bandwidth-intensive method of sharing music files, has also come under scrutiny at campuses.

"Kids that get warning letters are usually the ones that share songs over AOL's Instant Messenger. I think UCLA checks instant messages for copyrighted material," said Mike Steinbaugh, a second year microbiology student at UCLA.

To date, the focus has been on students that operate mini-networks for file sharing.

"Perhaps these students think that what the courts found to be illegal on the Internet is somehow less illegal if confined to a university network," Hilary Rosen, chairman of the RIAA, said in a Congressional hearing on music piracy at universities. "We certainly hope that the university community will actively confront this issue."

RIAA officials did not return repeated calls.

Last month, the RJAA filed lawsuits against four university students who were operating file sharing networks. The cases were settled out of court separately for $12,000 to $17,000. It was the first time the RIAA has gone after students, and more instances have followed since.

Steinbaugh and other students acknowledge that piracy is a big problem on UCLA's campus.

"Clearly, college students aren't buying records and are opting to bootleg the songs.' he said. Even so, he thinks the music industry should focus its efforts on deploying a "reasonable" digital music distribution system.

"Most users would be willing to pay money for digital copyrighted material as long as it is priced effectively and the quality is as good as buying a CD," he said.