LEWISTON – Bates College will not protect students accused of sharing copyrighted digital music, the school announced on Friday.

A Bates spokesman released a statement saying the college will comply with a subpoena received in May. School officials will notify three students accused of illegal file sharing that they have 14 days to challenge the subpoena before their names and other personal information is turned over to the attorneys representing recording companies behind the suit.

“We will obey the law,” said Gene Wiemers, college librarian and vice president of information and library services. “The college cannot protect students or employees, for that matter, who illegally share copyrighted materials with others.”

The record industry filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in May against the unnamed Bates students accused of Internet piracy.

The targeted students, who are known only to the school, could face penalties of $750 or higher for each song they allegedly shared on the Internet. They may also face thousands of dollars in court costs.

Some of the biggest record companies in the country – Arista, Interscope, Capital and Motown – were among the 13 plaintiffs listed in papers filed with the Portland court.

The Bates students are among more than 1,000 college students across the country who were targeted in the spring with notifications and lawsuits targeting the illegal sharing of music over the Internet.

“These threats have become a teachable moment in our efforts to help users understand intellectual property rights,” Wiemers said, “but they present hard lessons for the students involved.”

The subpoena Bates received requested the names, telephone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and Media Access Control numbers of the students identified in the suit.

According to the press release, Bates initially did not provide the requested information because the subpoena, received May 30, was deemed improper. It was filed in Maine’s District Court, but the college was directed to an attorney in New Hampshire.

When they responded to the subpoena on Friday, the response was sent to a lawyer in Maine.

When the the Recording Industry Association of America first began identifying college students who were sharing copyrighted music, it sent letters to the schools, including Bates, asking that the letters be forwarded to the students in question.

The letters invited the users to settle out of court for undisclosed amounts or risk legal action. Bates complied with the request but did not reveal the users’ names to the RIAA, according to Wiemers.

Two Bates students apparently settled. The RIAA filed “John Doe” lawsuits against five others, asking Bates to identify them so that legal action could proceed. Bates has determined that it does not possess the information required to identify the individuals in two of the cases.

The industry cites its year-old survey that found that more than half of college students download music and movies illegally and that college students account for a disproportionate share of the overall problem.

“We have no choice but to take the problem of campus music theft seriously,” Steven Marks, executive vice president and general counsel for the RIAA, said in May. “Our ability to invest in new bands and new music is seriously threatened by online theft – a problem that remains particularly acute on college campuses. Individuals engaged in illegal file trafficking need to understand that there are consequences for their actions.”