Three of the nine MSU students who face legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally downloading and file sharing copyrighted music online have settled their cases.
The amount of money agreed upon will not be disclosed, but RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said the regular settlement trend remains the same.
"The average does continue to be approximately $3,000," Lamy said.
MSU officials were forced to identify the students through their IP addresses after a federal judge issued a subpoena on behalf of RIAA. An IP address identifies where a certain computer links up to an online network.
Michael Kiley, an associate with MSU's General Counsel, said the university complied with the subpoena, issued last month, and released the names of the nine students to RIAA on June 1.
Kiley added MSU would normally not release students' info to a third party, but noted there's an exception for subpoenas in the Federal Education Right to Privacy Act.
"We really are respectful of students' privacy rights, but if somebody goes to court and gets a court-issued subpoena, they have a much broader right to get at personnel information," Kiley said.
David Gift, vice provost for libraries, computing and technology, said MSU has received numerous complaints in the past concerning students using the MSU network illegally, but this is the first time legal action such as the RIAA lawsuits have ensued.
"It happens hundreds of times. We average about 150 complaints a month," Gift said.
"We map the IP address to a user identity and then we ask that user to stop any illegal activity or to explain to us why the activity is not illegal," Gift added.
RIAA would not comment on the cases of the remaining six students. All nine file swappers received letters from RIAA concerning the pending legal action and were given a deadline from the court to respond, Lamy said.
The original complaint was filed in the Lansing satellite of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan. Judge Wendell A. Miles issued the subpoena to MSU for the plaintiffs, who include major record labels such as Atlantic Recording Corporation, Virgin Records America, Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Some downloaded songs included in the complaint: Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby," Nirvana's "All Apologies," Ludacris' "Area Codes," and Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way."
