• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 2, 2008

The RIAA suffered a major blow in court this week, but that hasn't stopped the organization from pressing forward with lawsuits against individuals.

In fact, the group appears to be accelerating its efforts against college students. In the last two weeks, the RIAA has sent some universities up to 20 times the typical number of notices about infringement, according to press reports.

For instance, George Washington University has received more than 120 notices about on-campus piracy in the last 10 days, up significantly from the usual five to 10 per week, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

And at the University of Cincinnati, the information security department has received 13 notices in the last two weeks, compared to the typical rate of 25 to 30 a year, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Other schools to see a surge in RIAA notices include the University of Chicago and Indiana University, according to Wired.

This news is odd because no one is reporting a corresponding increase in on-campus piracy. Rather, it appears that the RIAA is simply stepping up efforts on college campuses. An RIAA spokesperson denied there had been a change in procedure. "We are always making an effort to more effectively and efficiently detect infringing activity on the Internet, as we are continuously looking for ways to improve our ability to find and act on incidences of theft online," the spokesperson said. "Having said that, there's been no change in our procedures."

The RIAA began targeting individuals in 2003, but didn't launch concentrated campaigns targeting college students 2007. Many of the first individuals to be threatened agreed to settle with the RIAA rather than litigate.

But in the last year, some colleges aggressively fought the RIAA, by arguing to quash subpoenas for users' identities. In fact, in some cases college students have been able to tap into lawyers' expertise. The University of Maine's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic recently took up the cause of undergraduates at the school. And in Oregon, the state attorney general has gotten involved and argued that the RIAA's investigations were illegal.