The Center for Student Legal Services will consult with, but not represent, Ohio University students who face lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America, the center’s managing attorney said.

Lawsuits, if they are filed, will be in federal court, said Pat McGee, managing attorney for the center. Only Athens litigation is handled by the center, which focuses on tenant-landlord disputes, misdemeanors and consumer law.

“(The RIAA) is going to know they have students at a disadvantage when they have to drive two hours to file a motion,” McGee said. “That’s how they roll over people.”

The RIAA announced Tuesday it sent 400 pre-litigation settlement letters to universities nationwide that identify Internet provider addresses of suspected file-sharers. Fifty of those arrived at OU yesterday.

The RIAA is asking universities to forward the letters to network users, who must settle with the RIAA or face legal action.

“We never send a letter if we don’t intend to sue,” said Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, in an online chat.

If schools decide not to forward pre-litigation settlement notices, the RIAA will subpoena OU for the identities of suspected file-sharers, said Steven Marks, RIAA executive vice president, in the same chat.

A Web site, p2plawsuits.com, has been set up by the RIAA to provide an online payment option for settlements. In his experience, settlements range from $3,000 to $5,000, McGee said.

“It’s just another attempt to get easy settlement revenue,” said Ray Beckerman, a partner at New York City-based law firm Vandenberg and Feliu, of the recent batch of settlement letters. The Web site is misleading and designed to “extort money from you,” he said.

“They don’t like to sue people that can fight back,” Beckerman said. “Everybody should fight to the fullest extent they can.”

Of the more than 100 people faced with RIAA settlement notices that he’s consulted with, more than half haven’t been involved in peer-to-peer file sharing, Beckerman said. Students should pool their resources and hire an attorney instead of settling, he said.

“If everybody fought it tooth and nail it’d probably tie up the federal court system for ten years,” McGee said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging students who receive letters from the RIAA to contact their organization for advice, said Rebecca Jeschke, an EFF spokesperson.

“It’s important that this recording industry campaign doesn’t restrict legal use of the Internet,” Jeschke said. Digital rights management, an encryption method advocated by the RIAA, restricts fair use of music and contributes to piracy, she said.

Last week the RIAA announced that OU topped the list of schools receiving Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices. Days later, the university changed enforcement of its copyright infringement policy. Students caught will now be referred to judiciaries and have their Internet access disabled on their first offense.