Posted on 06/09/2007 7:36:23 AM PDT by gpapa
What do Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke and UCLA have in common? Apparently, leaders in Congress think they aren't expelling enough students for illegally swapping music and movies.
The House committees responsible for copyright and education wrote a joint letter May 1 scolding the presidents of 19 major American universities, demanding that each school respond to a six-page questionnaire detailing steps it has taken to curtail illegal music and movie file-sharing on campus. One of the questions - "Does your institution expel violating students?" - shows just how out-of-control the futile battle against campus downloading has become.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
The students at Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke and UCLA must be reminded that the Dems control Congress now.
Besides, how are they going to get enough “evidence” to expel the larger percent of students who don’t reside on campus?
For what I’ve quoted of your question, the answer is that the network administrators can look at every byte of data that comes through their net. (This doesn’t mean that they do, only that they can.) Much easier than that, they can look at which IP addresses you visit, and how much data you download. Large quantities of data may indicate that you are downloading movies or music, which they can then examine in more detail.
If you store the info on your IPod, they may be able to prove it. That part, I’m not sure about, but it seems likely, as they’ll know that most computers don’t usually have a “Z” drive. As for the cell phone, they can’t tell, but your cell phone provider most certainly can.
Disclaimer:
Same as in every grade school and high school. I’d still like to see how they’re going to go after the vast majority of their students who don’t use university computers or hook ups.
“Same as in every grade school and high school. I’d still like to see how they’re going to go after the vast majority of their students who don’t use university computers or hook ups.”
AFAIK, most college students do use University hookups, if not computers. They are free, and you can dial in from outside the U now. (that is here at OU, anyway.)
I have business-class DSL at home, but I’m also an adult, rather than a parent-supported teen or twenty.
I can also go to many locations on campus, and hit an unsecured wireless network with the SSID of ANY. This may be how they plan on avoiding provision of such information to people who sue; “We can’t identify the user you’re asking for information on.”
“Universities already pay blanket fees so student a cappella groups can perform on campus, and they also pay for cable TV subscriptions and site licenses for software. By the same token, they could collect a reasonable amount from their students for “all you can eat” downloading.”
Why should students who don’t download have to pay? I would presume the writer is suggesting the school collect said fees at the beginning of each term?
bookamrk
One way or another, it seems that the MPAA is determined to obtain information about TorrentSpy and its users. A complaint issued by TorrentSpy suggests the MPAA paid a hacker $15,000 to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets. The hacker admitted that this was true.
Probably because that is the way the Universities do things. I pay a health fee every semester despite having medical insurance of my own, and having never used the university health center. My classes generally start at 4:25 PM, and I could only get out of it by taking classes that start after 4:30 PM. Since none of the classes I need for my degree start after 4:30, it is not possible to get out of them. I also pay tech fees for the College of Education. Last semester, the one ed class I took wasn’t in the ed building, and I couldn’t get into their network in the classroom.
IOW, it’s a racket.
You look for established connections on specific ports, for one thing; sustained traffic to IP addresses of blacklisted sites, for another. Anything going through the campus routers is monitored, not for content but for its ability to deny service to others or make the network vulnerable. The recording and motion picture industry associations can't force the university to monitor for content without a warrant (usually) and most universities are fiercely protective of student and faculty academic freedom. The last thing university IT staffs want is to become shills for the RIAA. Unpaid ones, at that.
Copyright violations are always a touchy issue on campus. Libraries all have photocopiers, but the signs that tell students not to photocopy copyrighted material are universally respected...yeah, I'm being sarcastic here...and there is something about the collective nature of the entire university enterprise that lends toward a disrespect toward property rights anyway. That is, until it is a professor whose book is pirated without permission...
Not to mention most professor's pawn off their research and chapter writing to their students, gather the semester papers together, stamps his name to the top page and gets tenure.
stupid.
it’s a civil issue, not an academic issue.
they should be fined, if proven guilty.
“IOW, it’s a racket.”
Yes, it is that, but it is also blackmail. Either you pay or you get no transcript whenever you need one and you don’t graduate.
While the RIAA are asses, and I’m a big advocate of greater fair use rights, the copyright holders have the right to defend their property too. I don’t support blanket theft of songs or video. The RIAA has to adapt to modern times, but end users have to respect the law, too. And what you have is a bunch of kids in essence going “f*ck you, I’m going to take it, and you can’t do anything about it”. Right now there’s no balance at all.
What irked me as a student was having to buy the a cheap put together workbook. In the sixties it was $9.95.
“Yes, it is that, but it is also blackmail. Either you pay or you get no transcript whenever you need one and you don’t graduate.”
You’ll note I said “I pay...” I’m very aware that I won’t get a transcript if I don’t pay. It’s still a racket.
I note also a thread on students at a college in (I believe) Canada filing a law suit against their college for doing exactly this thing, on fees they are not legally allowed to collect. Wonder how much of that goes on here?
Did you also see the news story about college loan officers steering loans to certain companies that charged higher interest and fees and received kickbacks for doing it somewhere back east?
It’s a freaking racket. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. et cetera.
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