The RIAA means business.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched a new offensive in its longstanding battle over illegal music downloads by sending more than 800 "pre-settlement litigation" letters to colleges and universities across the country in February and March. The letters, which are to be delivered by university administration, inform students that they are the targets of a forthcoming copyright infringement lawsuit--unless they pay. The students are encouraged to turn themselves in and pay fines online at www.p2.plawsuits.com.

Critics of the action charge the RIAA circumvents normal legal procedures by identifying students they say are downloaders and presenting a "pay now or pay later" ultimatum without due process of the law.

Letters have been sent to Arizona State University (to 23 students), Boston University (50) North Carolina State University (37), Northern Illinois University (28), Ohio University (50), Syracuse University (N.Y.) (37), University of Massachusetts--Amherst (37), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (36), University of South Florida (31), University of Southern California (20), University of Tennessee-Knoxville (28), and The University of Texas at Austin (33), and the University of Wisconsin System (66), among many others.

In another college-related action, the RIAA has won the right to retroactively charge royalty fees to internet-based radio stations. Under the ruling, stations will have to pay a per-performance royalty rate. Though the per-performance fee is a tiny fraction of a cent, for a station with 1,000 listeners, each song played represents 1,000 performances. Multiply that by the number of songs played per hour, per day, per week, and the cost could be considerable. Although many college radio stations are protected, others are confused about how they may be affected.

At St. Cloud University's (Minn.) KVSC, Station Manager Jo McMullen-Boyer says the industry's new reporting procedures will be a challenge for the station. "We're told this year we'll have to report song/artist/label, etc., for seven days each quarter of the year, but the process and forms to make this happen are not very streamlined or clear at this point," she says. "Most college stations are struggling with how to follow [the industry's] Excel-based paperwork and tracking a very specific list of codes on a volunteer staff to meet their reporting criteria. We're hoping to computerize our CD collection into a scannable database, but that's a lot of work for a 15,000-20,000 CD collection."

Adam Winer, general manager of WMUC Radio, originating from the University of Maryland, College Park, says they are monitoring the royalty situation closely. "At this point, we are not certain what impact this will truly have on us, and we are waiting to see if this is something that they can even enforce."