Tech officials at colleges across the counattempt say they’ve seen a spike in the number of complaints they’ve received from the Recording Indusattempt Association of America. Each complaint says that a specific song or movie is being illegally traded by a computer user on a particular campus.
For instance, George Washington University generally receives five to 10 notices a week. In the past week alone, however, the university has received 123 notices. The messages come to colleges by e-mail, with the subject line “RIAA Infringement Notification.”
But an industry-group official told The Chronicle that the group has not changed its detection methods in any significant way. Are college students suddenly going on a downloading binge? Is something else going on? —Jeffrey R. Young