In February, the RIAA offered university students the option of an early settlement with the organization, which included lowered payouts and the benefit of avoiding going to court. While some universities were quick to comply with the RIAA"s request to forward the notices onto students, others were not, insisting that they were not capable of identifying the individuals within the university system based on the information given to them. North Carolina State University was one university that forwarded the notices onto students but only one NCSU student out of 23 came forward to take advantage of the initial settlement offered by the RIAA, according to a report in the NCSU student paper, Technician Online.
The university"s Student Legal Services department has been advising students to continue pushing back, all the way to federal court. NCSU can either fight the subpoenas or turn the names over to the RIAA. Once the RIAA gets the names out of NCSU, however, the students will no longer be able to hide behind the university and will be on their own when it comes to fighting the cases. Since the majority of those targeted by the RIAA"s pre-litigation notices have chosen not to take advantage of the RIAA"s early settlement offer, the RIAA appears to be more than ready to move ahead with the lawsuits.