• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, August 6, 2008

A college in Michigan has added its voice to the growing roster of challengers to the record labels' strategy of suing alleged file-sharers for copyright infringement.

Central Michigan University last month quietly filed a complaint with a state agency against the Recording Industry Association of America's investigative arm, MediaSentry. The school is asking the Department of Labor and Economic Growth to order MediaSentry to cease and desist investigating file-sharing until it obtains a license.

The school alleges that MediaSentry's work on behalf of the recording industry--investigating copyright infringement, determining suspects' identities, and gathering evidence--requires a license in Michigan. "All of these activities would clearly constitute the activities of a 'private investigator' under the Private Detective Licensing Act," the school wrote.

Since 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America has relied on MediaSentry to gather evidence against alleged file-sharers. To date, the organization has sued or threatened to sue more than 20,000 individuals, based largely on evidence garnered by MediaSentry.

But in the last year, some defendants began questioning whether MediaSentry's investigations were lawful. Now, with the Michigan complaint, the record industry is currently facing a challenge to its methods in at least eight states, including Arizona, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas. Authorities in two--Massachusetts and Maine--have told MediaSentry to halt investigations until it receives a license.

Courts have not yet ruled definitively on the issue, but at least one federal district court judge has signaled there are grounds to challenge the recording industry. In that case, the record industry sued Florida resident Eva Boyer for copyright infringement, prompting her to countersue for trespass, computer fraud and other charges.

"Record companies hired unlicensed private investigators--in violation of various state laws -- who receive a bounty to invade private computers and private computer networks to obtain information," Boyer alleged in her counterclaim.

The record industry unsuccessfully asked for Boyer's claims to be dismissed, arguing that MediaSentry was doing what any other Web user could do. "In observing the infringement, MediaSentry uses the same functionalities that are built into P2P (peer-to-peer) programs that any user of the software can utilize on the network," the record labels argued.

The recording industry association didn't respond to a request for comment for this article, but has previously said it doesn't believe that MediaSentry requires a license.