A federal magistrate in Huntington ruled this week that Marshall University will have to supply names of people accused of illegally pirating music from nearly a dozen record companies.

Magistrate Maurice G. Taylor Jr. issued an order April 14 denying a request by Marshall to quash a subpoena seeking names and identifying information of students, staff or faculty whose unique Internet Profile account numbers at the university were used to download music and share it over the school's server. The subpoena was requested by several different music labels, including Arista Records LLC, Capitol Records Inc., BMG Music and Virgin Records America Inc., which are trying to identify seven unknown Marshall computer users as part of a lawsuit filed by music companies throughout the federal court system last year.

Marshall had sought to quash the subpoena on the grounds that it was too broad and imposed too great of a burden on the university. University lawyers and administrators stated in court documents that the institution could never be sure if the person assigned a specific user address was really the one logged on. Plus, they said trying to determine who was a logged on at a precise time on a precise day would be a daunting task.

"Many of our students in the residence halls prop open the room doors and wander from room to room sharing each other's computers. Marshall University cannot determine whether the content was accessed by the room occupant or visitor," Marshall Vice President for Information Technology Jan Fox stated in an affidavit supporting the motion to quash.

In his order, Taylor said the university had the wrong idea -- it did not have to determine who was using the computer at an exact time. Instead, he said the record companies were only seeking identifying information for the people assigned the Internet Protocol address. He ordered the record companies to amend their subpoena to reflect the clarification and give the university 30 days to comply.

"Limiting the request to identifying information with respect to individuals associated with the IP addresses on the dates and times indicated removes any basis for contending that plaintiff's subpoena is 'over broad,'" Taylor wrote in his order.

In his order, Taylor said the university should make a reasonable effort to contact the students, faculty or staff members whose names will be released within five days of receiving the amended subpoena and inform them that they have the right to move to quash or modify the subpoena. But individuals whose names are being released have to make such a motion before the university's deadline to comply passes, Taylor's order said.

The university also tried to quash the subpoena on the grounds that releasing students' information would put the university at risk of violating the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. If that happened, the university contended, Marshall could lose significant federal assistance dollars.

Taylor said that wasn't an issue.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jendonnae Houdyschell, who is representing Marshall University's Board of Governors and the Higher Education Policy Commission, declined to comment on Taylor's order.

A phone message for the attorney representing the record labels, Mychael Shultz with Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in Charleston, was not returned by press time.

The recording company's original lawsuit named Does 1-7 as defendants, stating that the only identifying information they have about the seven downloaders was their IP address. The suit lists two separate incidents with the same IP address downloading and sharing music at about 3:35 p.m., Feb. 11, 2007. It also lists five other IP accounts that pirated music at 9:23 a.m., Feb. 8, 2007; 3:25 a.m., Feb. 17, 2007; 2:14 p.m., May 15, 2007; 5:30 a.m., Feb. 8, 2007; and at 10:45 p.m., March 25, 2007.

Some of the songs the companies allege as being pirated include Whitney Houston's "I Want to Dance With Somebody" and "Greatest Love of All," Ludacris's "Southern Hospitality," Eminem's "Sing for the Moment," Michael Jackson's "Thiller" and Bow Wow's "My Baby."