SYRACUSE - The music business wants to know who's stealing its Shaggy.

Five recording companies have filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of New York against two "John Doe" music pirates the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has tracked to Morrisville State College. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Virgin Records America, UMG Recordings, Arista Records, and BMG Music are plaintiffs in the case. The list of artists victimized includes Shaggy, Nas, Ja Rule, Usher, DMX, and Beenie Man.

The complaint alleges that two computer users, known only by Internet protocol (IP) numbers assigned to Morrisville State College, have violated federal copyright law. An IP address is a unique number that can identify which particular computer performed particular actions on the Internet.

RIAA investigators allege that the John Doe defendants used the Kazaa file-sharing network to make copyrighted songs available for download. The complaint seeks a discovery order allowing the plaintiffs to discover the identities of the unknown Morrisville downloaders. A federal judge issued an order granting the plaintiffs subpoena power on Nov. 5.

Morrisville says it plans to obey any court orders served on it.

"The college was notified of the John Doe lawsuit by the RIAA. At present, we have yet to receive a subpoena. We will certainly comply with the letter of the law," says Jessica DeCerce, director of public relations for Morrisville State College.

The RIAA concedes in court documents that it has only determined that Morrisville's IP address was used to infringe copyrighted works.

"The RIAA could not, however, determine the physical location of the users or their identities," says a supporting declaration filed with the suit.

Morrisville is known nationwide as a technically advanced school. The college introduced laptop computers and wirelesscomputing networks before most other schools, earning accolades as the "most wired," school from computing magazines. The "wired" designation is an anachronism as Morrisville has even done away with its telephone lines, switching students to Nextel phones so they can Direct Connect when they're not using the college's computing network.