The Michigan Tech students sued by the RIAA for setting up an on-campus MP3-swapping network have settled: each will be paying between $12,000 and $17,000 in fines to the record labels and promise not to download illegal music, although the students did not admit any wrongdoing. It’s not clear with this might mean for U-M students, although I had heard a rumor ITCS was considering privatizing the residence hall ethernet connections partly in an effort to avoid the increasingly hostile climate facing ISPs.

Related stories:
Chronicle: “Record companies settle lawsuits against 4 students”
DetNews: “Students settle file-swapping lawsuit with music industry”
Wired: “Students fork it over to RIAA”
and, Freep’s Heather Newman: “Record biz’s anti-piracy offensive sounds off-key”