In its latest strategy for dealing with illegal file sharing on college campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is asking for help from college administrators to deal with the growing trend of students sharing copyrighted files on local area networks (LANs).

LAN file sharing allows students to download large amounts of copyrighted music and movies at high speeds directly from other students at their college or university onto their computers, using programs like Direct Connect, myTunes and ourTunes.

In April the RIAA sent a letter to 40 universities, but not to Ithaca College, identifying LAN piracy as an “increasing” problem and asking administrators for help in stopping students from downloading copyrighted files over college networks.

The letter advised colleges and universities to conduct investigations of their networks and shut down any illegal file sharing they found. The RIAA said stopping piracy on LANs is a priority because of the “growing share of the college piracy problem attributable to [LANs].”

Dave Weil, director of Web systems for Information Technology Services, said Apogee Telecom, the company that handles the college’s residential Internet, had not informed the college of any students sharing copyrighted files through residential LANs.

“If the college became aware of it, it’s against our policies, so we would investigate and take appropriate action,” Weil said.

Mike Leary, assistant director of judicial affairs, said though his office has sent out more than 250 warning letters since 2003 to students who Apogee identified for illegally sharing files on the Internet, his office hadn’t heard anything about file sharing on local area networks.

“For 99 percent of the violations we have, it only happens one time and the students say ‘OK, I won’t do that anymore,’” he said.

But while college officials seem unaware of LAN file sharing, students said this method is ubiquitous on campus networks.

Senior Alex Weber said the use of myTunes and similar programs is “very prevalent” across campus.

“Pretty much everyone I know has used it, or does use it,” he said. “I would say more do than don’t, and that’s why [the RIAA] sent out the letter.”

Junior Evan Perriello said he’s not concerned about being caught using myTunes because the RIAA is unable to monitor his downloading.

“It’s a lot faster,” he said. “It’s easier to download because it doesn’t have the same amount of users since it’s just through the campus LANs.”

The RIAA and other copyright advocacy organizations like the Entertainment Software Association have been actively identifying and suing students who use popular downloading programs like LimeWire and KaZaA for years, but before this year it did not take action against students using LANs to share files.

Sophomore Kyle Rogers received an e-mail last Monday from Apogee explaining that he faced a lawsuit for illegally sharing a copy of a computer game on Bittorrent, a file-sharing network. Students using Bittorrent share files with Internet users outside of the college, so it can be traced.

Rogers said he immediately complied with the e-mail, which instructed him to delete the files and notify Apogee that he had done so to avoid a lawsuit.

Rogers said several of his friends had also received similar e-mails and promptly deleted the illegal material from their computers as well.

“I had no idea I was being monitored,” he said. “I was pretty freaked out.”

Even if Apogee finds a way to curtail LAN file sharing, Weber said students would find another way.

“It’s almost impossible to stop downloading at this point,” he said.