"It's as wrong to help someone steal as it is to steal. It's right to give credit where credit is due. That's true in a record store and it's true online," she said in the release.
The student said the Administrative Board dealt with the issue as an "attempt at theft."
Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 declined to comment on the incident, in accordance with the administration policy's not to discuss individual disciplinary cases.
According to Franklin M. Steen, director of computer services for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, RIAA sent similar letters to a number of other university presidents.
The record companies find it much easier to target students because they know that they will be disciplined by their respective universities. Many of the companies on the Internet that also distribute MP3s are much harder to locate and punish.
Steen said he believes that the distinction between music that is already in the public domain, and music that is protected by copyright laws, is very hard to determine.
"We must educate people to know what's right and wrong, but this is very hard to do," Steen said.
Harvard students must realize that when they put up Web sites, they have a responsibility to know that what they are doing is in accordance with the law, according to Steen.
The first-year was not the first student to deal with the Administrative Board for an issue relating to the Internet.
Michael L. Develin '00 said he received a warning from the Ad Board for "misusing network resources" this past September.
He and two friends created a Web site with a circle of links as a prank. Their goal was to be listed on a so-called "communist page" for having received a very large number of hits.
But their Web site--which got 20,000 hits in a three hour period--put a strain on Harvard's network.
Develin said he believes his case is different from the first-year student's because it was discovered by the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) and is against HASCS's rules, but is not illegal outside of Harvard.
There is a "tough balance between freedom of information and copyright infringement" on the Internet, Develin said.
The first-year said he has learned a lot from his own experience. "I am never getting involved in anything like this again," he said.
He said he believes the Internet and those who govern it must deal with the many egregious violations of copyright law that currently exist.
"The 'Net calls itself a community," he said. "If they abuse things, then record and software companies are going to crack down and everybody will get nothing."
He also thinks that MP3s have a bright future as long as they are modified by record companies and distributed legally.
What originally seemed like jaywalking to this unsuspecting student, actually turned out to be a "bad error in judgment," which he said he hopes will deter other students from repeating his mistakes