Washington--The recording industry's campaign of lawsuits against people who violate copyright will not target college students who download a few songs, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America has told Congress.

But industry officials say the campaign will help scare students away from copying songs when they see classmates who have downloaded significant numbers of tracks getting slapped with lawsuits.

Recording-industry officials explained the strategy in an 11-page letter to Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican who is chairman of an investigations subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Coleman had sought assurances from the recording industry that it was not taking a "shotgun" approach, aiming for people who might be unaware that they were violating copyright law by downloading a few of their favorite tunes.

Cary H. Sherman, president of the RIAA, stated in the letter that the industry would not target "de minimis" users. Instead, subpoenas would be sent to people downloaded "a substantial amount," although it's unclear how much that is.

The letter was dated August 14 and was released to the public on Monday. The industry also gave Senator Coleman copies of 1,075 subpoenas that it had sent to Internet service providers seeking the names of people the industry believes have downloaded songs copyrighted material illegally.

Even if the recording industry doesn't sue everyone who has ever downloaded a song, going after a few violators offers a significant deterrence, the letter states. "The same day we brought suits against several college students who had set up and were running the unlicensed peer-to-peer systems on their college networks, many other students voluntarily shut down their similar networks on other campuses," the letter states (The Chronicle, April 18).

Senator Coleman requested the information after the recording industry announced in June that it would sue individual users who download illegal copies of songs.

Tom Steward, communications director in Senator Coleman's office, said the senator is still reviewing the information sent to him by the recording industry and has not yet decided if it satisfies his concerns. But Mr. Steward said the senator appreciates the quick response.

Senator Coleman plans to hold hearings to discuss the problems of illegal file sharing and how the recording industry is responding. No date has been set.

"It's a pretty broad topic, so we'll be covering a broad range of issues," Mr. Steward said.