The suits were filed in federal courts in New York, New Jersey and Michigan and claim that four students, Daniel Peng, Joseph Nievelt, Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman, had offered more than a million songs to other users on local university networks. 

An RIAA spokesperson said that they are asking that the filesharing services be disabled and that damages of up to $150,000 per song be awarded. 

The file sharing services did not reach outside of the universities but were instead only available to students on the local networks servicing the universities. 

"These systems are best described as 'local area Napster networks,' " RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "The court ruled that Napster was illegal and shut it down. These systems are just as illegal and operate in the same manner. And just like Napster, they hurt artists, musicians, songwriters, those who invest in their work and the thousands of others who work to bring music to the public."

Last October the RIAA sent letters to Universities warning them about illegal filesharing on their networks. They followed up shortly there after with similar letters sent to Fortune 500 companies.  This new legal action seems to be the latest battle in the RIAA’s war against Internet piracy, which is indeed heating up. 
 
 

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