The RIAA is increasing the pressure it puts on colleges and universities to restrict activities on school networks, sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year.

A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1,000 complaints accusing individual students since last fall. For students who are caught, punishments vary from e-mail warnings to suspensions.

The Recording Industry Association of America identified the schools that it considers its top offenders:

• Ohio
• Purdue
• The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• University of Tennessee
• The University of South Carolina

“It’s something we feel we have to do,” RIAA President Carey Sherman said. “We have to let people know that if they engage in this activity, they are not anonymous.”

The music group said each university should set its own penalties for stealing songs and said campuses are rife with such thefts. “When we look at the problem, it’s particularly acute in the college context,” RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol said.

Under federal law, universities that receive complaints about students illegally distributing copyrighted songs generally must act to stop repeat offenders or else the schools can be sued. The entertainment industry typically can identify a student only by his or her numerical Internet address and must rely on the school to correlate that information with its own records to trace a person’s real-world identity.

via Forbes