When Royce Cole downloaded "The Bourne Identity" on file sharing software last month, he didn't expect retaliation from the movie industry.
The computer engineering and music composition junior received a letter in early April from MSU officials telling him to immediately delete the movie, or face termination of his network access.
Last year, music and movie industry executives began aggressively tracking down college students who violate federal copyright laws by downloading and sharing files.
The increased efforts have left some MSU students targeted by the media companies, forcing university officials to take action.
"I understand why they're doing this," said Cole, who added the download was accidental. "But there are so many people on campus and I feel like I was singled out. I got the warning and had to go through the hoops."
The number of complaints to MSU from the music and movie industries have swelled since the beginning of the school year from 10 per month to 125 per week, said David Gift, vice provost for libraries, computing and technology.
"It's not because the students' behavior has changed," he said. "The record companies have just become that much more aggressive."
Downloading copyright files on the university network violates MSU's acceptable use policy, increases the need for higher bandwidth and is illegal, Gift said.
In its first legal action against alleged file-sharers on college campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America filed lawsuits in early April against students from Michigan Technological University, Princeton University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
Each student named in the lawsuit operated file-sharing systems on campus computer networks that are accessible to people only on campus.
Collectively, the students shared about 2.1 million music files, industry officials say. The association is seeking damages of $150,000 for each file the defendants have on their Web site.
Officials say MSU students could face similar consequences.
When MSU receives notification of a violation on their server, they are required by law to solve the problem.
"We don't actively snoop," Gift said. "We only take action when something is brought to our attention. We're not the network police."
The MSU Computer Laboratory identifies the student based on the Internet address supplied by the entertainment industry and sends a warning letter asking the student to delete the file within 48 hours.
If the student does not comply, MSU officials terminate the student's network access and privileges.
About 100 students have had their access terminated this year, said Tom Davis, acting director of the MSU Computer Laboratory.
Further action is up to the entertainment industry, he said.
"The vast majority of students use systems like KaZaA, so really we could face tens of thousands of these complaints."
The rush to hunt down illegal file sharing began last October when the recording industry and the Motion Picture Association of America sent letters to 2,300 university presidents urging them to crack down on campus pirates.
"It's like driving faster than the speed limit," Gift said. "Everyone knows what the speed limit is and everybody goes faster anyway. If you're the one that gets caught you still broke the law. Only the chances of getting caught are 40 times higher now."
Kendra Snyder can be reached at snyderk6@msu.edu.
