The Top 25 Music Piracy Universities in the United States according to RIAA

Some of the major Universities now have their names in a top 25 list but unlike a top school list, this is something which the Universities might not exactly brag around. The RIAA has recently named the top 25 music pirating Universities in the United States based on the 14,500 copyright notices they have sent out during the 2006-2007 school year. This number represents a jump of 3 times in the notices sent our from last year. The RIAA credits new and improved tracking methods and tools for this increase in the number of lawsuits they are able to send out.

Some of the top schools in this list include the Ohio University, Purdue University and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln which round out the top 3 Universities, the worst offenders whose students received the most number of notices.

According to a report on Ars Technica, not all schools react the same way to the copyright notices, however, and some appear to take it more seriously than others. Michigan State University forces two-time offenders to watch an anti-piracy DVD by the RIAA, and three-time offenders could face suspension for a semester. Ohio University requires two-time offenders to face suspension, probation, or possibly a homework assignment on the topic (much worse than suspension). Among the most aggressive, the University of Tennessee turns off Internet connections for second-time offenders until they physically take their computers to a lab where their music-sharing programs are deleted for them.

Purdue, on the other hand (my not-so-proud alma mater for today), seems to be taking the “don’t worry, be happy” approach to sitting pretty at the number two spot. The school almost never even notifies the students—of copyright infringement, or much of anything, in my experience. Purdue spokesman Steve Tally told the Associated Press, “In a sense, the (complaint) letter is asking us to pursue an investigation and as the service provider we don’t see that as our role.” This attitude expresses either extreme pompousness on Purdue’s part or extreme ignorance. Is that not the whole reason why the RIAA cannot pursue potential infringers individually? The students are currently allowed to hide behind the ISP—in this case, the university—with the understanding that the ISP will investigate infringement accusations. If Purdue and any other schools who express this attitude don’t feel the need to investigate, then they put themselves at risk of being sued by the RIAA.

The Top 25 Music Piracy Schools in the United States. The number of the right hand side represents the number of notices each school received

   1. Ohio University – 1,287
   2. Purdue University – 1,068
   3. University of Nebraska at Lincoln – 1,002
   4. University of Tennessee at Knoxville – 959
   5. University of South Carolina – 914
   6. University of Massachusetts at Amherst – 897
   7. Michigan State University – 753
   8. Howard University – 572
   9. North Carolina State University – 550
  10. University of Wisconsin at Madison – 513
  11. University of South Florida – 490
  12. Syracuse University – 488
  13. Northern Illinois University – 487
  14. University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire – 473
  15. Boston University – 470
  16. Northern Michigan University – 457
  17. Kent State University – 424
  18. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – 400
  19. University of Texas at Austin – 371
  20. North Dakota State University – 360
  21. Indiana University – 353
  22. Western Kentucky University – 353
  23. Seton Hall University – 338
  24. Arizona State University – 336
  25. Marshall University – 331

Featured post: Have you updated your Facebook privacy settings? Check out our Facebook privacy settings guide