One individual from UCLA was among 757 nationwide targeted by the recording industry’s latest round of lawsuits against illegal file sharing, which were filed Thursday and include users at 17 different college campuses.

The “John Doe” lawsuit contains only the alleged infringer’s IP address, and marks the sixth time a user of UCLA’s network has been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America – which represents thousands of artists – for illegal distribution of copyrighted music.

The RIAA announced similar lawsuits against seven UCLA students in May, but only submitted subpoenas for the names of five users, said Kent Wada, director of information technology policy at UCLA.

Wada said it was not clear whether Thursday’s lawsuit was directed at a student, staff or faculty member – just that the user was on the UCLA network – but said it was extremely likely that the alleged copyright infringer is a student.

Other affected universities include UC Berkeley and UC San Diego.

Jenni Engebretsen, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said those named in the lawsuits filed Thursday, as in previous lawsuits, were individuals who engaged in “massive” file sharing. She did not comment on whether the RIAA was looking on specific campus networks for copyright infringers.

“Students are some of the most avid music fans,” she said. “The habits they develop in college are likely to stick with them for life, so we feel it is especially important to educate students about the law, the value of copyrighted works and the consequences that come with the theft of online music.”

Engebretsen said the UCLA user was using software called i2hub, which operates on the high-speed Internet2 network on campus. More than 560 users of the Internet2 network, which is primarily located on college campuses, have been sued by the recording industry, according to the RIAA.

Thursday’s lawsuits bring the total number of individuals sued by the RIAA to more than 14,800 since the industry’s legal campaign began in September 2003.

“Those who continue to engage in this online theft pose a direct threat to the music community’s ability to invest in new bands and the new music that fans want to hear,” said RIAA President Cary Sherman in a press release. “These lawsuits are an important part of our defense against that threat.”

Now, the university will await a subpoena from the RIAA to obtain the name of the alleged infringer.

Wada said his main reaction to the notice of Thursday’s lawsuit was one of disappointment, given the efforts UCLA administrators have taken to educate students about illegally trading copyrighted files.

Administrative actions include sending e-mail notifications about the law and enacting a quarantine system that isolates infringers from the campus network until the offending files are removed.

“Everything that we’ve done to date is to try and help students prevent getting to the point where they’re going to be sued,” Wada said. “Once that happens, we really have no ability to help.”

Wada said UCLA gets many more claims of infringement from the RIAA – essentially “cease and desist” orders – than lawsuits. The university puts the accused students in quarantine until the infringement claims have been resolved.

The continued lawsuits from the RIAA don’t necessarily mean UCLA’s methods to deal with file sharing on campus aren’t working, Wada said.

“(The quarantine system is) not perfect, but we believe just in looking at the numbers ... that the number of claims of copyright infringement we’ve received has gone significantly down,” he said.

Recently, the University of California has been moving toward offering legal music providers to its campuses, hoping to help curb illegal file sharing.

Judy Lin, a UCLA spokeswoman, said a group of faculty, administrators and students has formed to investigate offering legal music services to UCLA students at discounted rates.

The university will meet with representatives from several services, including Cdigix and Apple’s iTunes, in the coming weeks to discuss technical details and decide on what services, if any, will be offered, Lin said.