But when a state’s attorney general files papers on behalf of the university the students attend, that’s news.

That’s what is happening in Oregon, where the RIAA filed a lawsuit accusing 17 University of Oregon students of infringing recording industry copyrights. Unable to actually identify the students by name, the lawsuit instead named Internet addresses.

For many of these lawsuits, identifying the perps by Internet addresses instead of the actual names is pretty much par for the course whether the RIAA is targeting a school or an Internet service provider. The RIAA files the lawsuit and expects the business or organization on the other end to come up with the names.

But that wasn’t good enough for Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, who filed court papers last week in an attempt to keep the school from having to identify the students.

The university says naming the students without any prior investigation by the school would violate the students’ right to privacy. The university claims it can’t be sure who actually committed any infringing activity without interviewing the students and inspecting the computers.

The university also says that although the RIAA has the Internet addresses, that doesn’t mean the students assigned those addresses necessarily infringed on copyrights by downloading unauthorized music. Instead, the university says it could have been a visitor, guest or anyone who might happen to have access to the Internet addresses identified in the lawsuit.

“University [officials] feel like they are being asked to do the investigation on behalf of the company when it’s not really their role,” said Oregon Department of Justice spokesperson Stephanie Soden.

According to PC World, of the 17 John Does / Internet addresses targeted in the RIAA’s lawsuit, five of the addresses lead to double-occupancy rooms and the University cannot identify which student actually committed the alleged infringements without conducting its own investigation. Although two addresses lead to single-occupancy rooms, the University can’t determine if the person assigned to that room committed a copyright infringement or if the dirty deed was done by a visitor.

But there may be more to this than the University of Oregon’s refusal to conduct an investigation. The school also says federal law prevents them from identifying a student based solely on an Internet address.

In response to the Oregon Attorney General filing papers in an attempt to stop the lawsuit, the RIAA said the law is on the trade organization’s side.

“This is not the first attempt to quash a subpoena, nor do we expect it to be the last,” an RIAA spokesperson said. “In the handful of instances where this has occurred, the courts have overwhelmingly ruled in favor of the record companies.”