Universities targets in 2005: Music industry

According to Michael Speck, general manager of the record labels' Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) unit, it is not yet certain whether MIPI will deal with the situation by conducting raids or simply continue ongoing legal proceedings against the Universities of Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney.

"We intend on prosecuting. At this point, the primary target are Australian Universities. Whether by way of raids or simply commencing the proceedings remains to be seen. We need to finalise the individual investigations make no mistake about it. Australian Universities on the public purse have become the principal source of music piracy beyond peer to peer operations," Speck said.

Speck said the three Universities had not complied with a court order which will allow the music industry's forensics expert to have access to the Universities' data to retrieve infringing sound recordings. He added that MIPI is preparing to take the Universities back to court.

Speck assured that they will not be prosecuting students directly and will focus mainly on the "big businesses."

"We're looking specifically at the University industry. They are information factories that generate intellectual property and commercialise it and fully understand the ramifications of infringing copyright. They have treated the music industry with complete contempt."

"We hope that Universities will finally do the right thing and deal with the issue internally. Students could well find that their online dealings become the subject matter of the music industry cases. We will not prosecute students, this is about big businesses."

Speck said they already have a number of Universities identified and that their main priority in 2005 will be dealing with music piracy in Universities across Australia.

He added that MIPI had an online surveillance project in place which makes it clear what infringing activity emanates from Universities.

"We have been asking Universities to treat our copyright no differently to how they treat their own. We can only assume they have no regard for anyone else's copyright. There is no point negotiating with this industry," Speck said.

He added that several Universities have "gone back to their old ways" and that the 38 Universities have banded together to "resist any attempt to deal with piracy or properly license the performance of music in Australia."