The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has joined student associations to campaign against the music industry's attempts to gain access to personal information in its fight against music piracy.

Sony, EMI and Universal have taken Melbourne University, Sydney University and the University of Tasmania to court in a bid to gain access to files which may contain evidence of music piracy.

Council president Cameron Murphy told ZDNet Australia   the music industry was attempting to force the universities to ignore their obligations towards protecting the privacy of employees and students.

The council, together with the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and Sydney Universities Postgraduates Representative Association, will conduct a campaign to prevent the varsities from providing personal information requested by the music industry.

According to Murphy, there are two main aspects to the campaign. "We're informing people about the case because they are unaware as to what's going on and, more importantly, are unaware of the consequences to privacy as a result of this case," said Murphy. "The second aspect is to ensure universities fulfil their obligations in terms of privacy to students and staff."

"Of course [the music industry] has a right to protect its intellectual property rights but this is not the way to do it...people should only be acting if there's evidence of wrongdoing," said Murphy. He said the music companies were attempting to fish through the information to see if there were any copyright breaches.

In court last Friday the universities argued the music companies were seeking a "search for the purpose of discovery rather than a search as a result of discovery". They argued that the backup reel the music companies were seeking access to contained information other than that sought by the companies, and the companies should therefore dictate which particular files they deemed relevant.

The music companies argued that the entire backup reel constituted a document, and that it contained evidence relevant to the case. "The fact that it includes other documents doesn't mean it ceases to contain evidence that is relevant," said the lawyer for the music industry. "The [reel] relates to the relevant issue. The fact that it also relates to other issues is neither here nor there."

Until the judgement on the case is handed down, it is unclear how much of an impact it will have on issues such as privacy and copyright protection in Australia.

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