I'm being sued by the RIAA

[phil_ivey_fan]

I'm looking for some advice. Basically, I got caught using i2hub for sharing and downloading music on the internet 2 backbone.

The riaa filed lawsuits against 400+ college student across the country for copyright violations. They filed the lawsuits as john doe lawsuits. They then supenoed the colleges to turn over the identities of the IP addresses in violation.

I found out back in april after the list of ip's from my school was leaked on the internet that I was one of the unfortunate 25 from my college. I immediately loaded my computer w/ spyware, backdoors, viruses, and then corrupted the OS. I took it to CompUSA so that I could get them to document all the things wrong w/ my computer. My school's legal services department just notified me 5 days ago that they are turning over my identity to the RIAA effective yesterday (jun22).

What should I do? The reason I messed up my computer was so I could have a shot at pleading ignorance. Is this a good idea or no? Should I just bite the bullet and pay the etsimated $3500 settlement fee?

The RIAA has still not released a statement on how they got access to the I2 backbone. They applied back in Dec. 2004 and were denied by the I2 Committee. Should I wait it out and hope that a ruling that the RIAA illegaly obtained the evidence?

- Phil