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“When I opened the e-mail and it said RIAA, my heart dropped. I was like, ‘What the ... is this?’” said the third-year anthropology student, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her anonymity with the RIAA. “It said that I was being sued by the RIAA and that I should talk to a lawyer. I honestly had no idea what to do.”

The message that the student had received was an early settlement notification from the Recording Industry Association of America giving notice that if the case could not be settled out of court, the RIAA would be taking legal action against the student.

Students who are caught sharing files illegally over UCLA Internet connections have been receiving similar e-mails and having similar reactions over the last several years.

But not all of those who have faced punishment from the university for such violations of the student conduct code have had to deal with the RIAA, one of the parties representing copyright holders whose property is frequently made available to download online.

“NBC caught me downloading a torrent, which is one of the safest ways you can download,” said a fourth-year statistics student who also asked to remain anonymous so the RIAA does not learn his name. “A torrent is a file that is uploaded onto the Internet, and the way it works is that when you’re downloading (a file), at the same time you’re uploading it as well. It encourages uploading, but that is how you can get caught.”

While television networks such as NBC present less of a risk in terms of law suits, students who use programs such as Limewire to download files have more reason to be concerned about being caught because that kind of activity is relatively easy to detect, he said.

The most secure way for students to share files electronically is through peer-to-peer servers such as the one he established during winter quarter of 2007, he added.

“DC++ is a real peer-to-peer. It’s not like Kazaa or Limewire where there is a mediator that takes down (Internet protocol) addresses. With DC++ there is no record kept of files being transferred,” he explained, adding that prior to his establishment of the DC++ server for the duration of about a year, other students had set up networks using the same program.

The server was eventually taken offline due to limited involvement from students, but not because of fear of detection by the university or any other body, he said.

“Many students truly believe that the university has software running that monitors students’ Internet activity; this is not the case,” said Kenn Heller, an assistant dean of students and associate director of the UCLA Center for Student Programming. “We are vehemently opposed to that. That’s not the business we want to be in. The university has testified at the congressional level saying , ‘We do not support the implementation of any software which goes into the data stream to monitor what is happening.”

Nearly every case of illegal file sharing handled by the center has taken place in the UCLA residence halls, and all but a few of these have come as the result of a notification from a copyright owner or representative body that has detected the crime without the assistance of UCLA, Heller said.

These complaints are delivered to UCLA and then immediately distributed to the e-mail address assigned to the injurious IP address.

In this way, students remain anonymous with neither the university nor the plaintiff party acknowledging the name of the student who allegedly shared the files.

What follows the initial detection and notification of the student is a series of letters, warnings, educational meetings, counseling sessions and punishments that can be as severe as expulsion.

However, even after completing the university’s list of punishments and workshops, some students have more serious worries yet to be discovered.

Students whose notifications come from the RIAA frequently face the possibility of a civil law suit, Heller said.

Over the last several years, the RIAA has sent out early settlement letters to those caught sharing files, allowing them to pay an average sum of $3,000 to avoid being sued, said Liz Kemper, director of UCLA Student Legal Services.

“Students who receive these letters are very well served by coming into our office,” Kemper said, explaining that students who choose to settle their RIAA suits through the legal center can pay without revealing their identity.

Still, some students choose to fight the RIAA in court despite the fact that, as Kemper explained, each progressive settlement opportunity beyond the initial $3,000 is more expensive than that which preceded it.

“They said I had songs that I had never even heard of!” said a third-year English student who also wanted to remain anonymous because the RIAA does not know his name. “That’s why I fought it. If I truly believed they caught me, I would have settled. I think they got the wrong person.”