Inside the Hub: File Sharing at Cornell
Kitsch magazine just put an article called Inside the Hub which no doubt evokes fond memories for all of you. It explores the internal private file sharing network that exists at Cornell as a DC++ hub server, and includes a selected quote from yours truly:
Elliott Bäck, a Cornell alumnus whose once-controversial campus blog I previously profiled in this magazine, collected data on the hub before graduating and last September posted to his blog an analysis. Bäck found over 19 terabytes comprising about 2.5 million different files shared between more than a thousand users at any given moment. (Apple’s popular—and legal—iTunes store currently has more than 6 million songs, but not even close to the over 200 thousand video files on DC++ at any one time.)
Unfortunately, the article is also heavily pro-administration and pro-RIAA, with a few ridiculous statements like:
- “When presented with a court-ordered subpoena, Cornell has little choice but to hand over this information.”
- “[A]ll Cornell can do is step back and stay as uninvolved as possible in the conflict between the entertainment industry and students.”
- “Mitrano says she has processed over 1,000 takedown notices.”
Nowhere in this article do they suggest that these things are in fact bad. For example, Cornell is able to block copyright holders from identifying alleged music pirates by filing a motion to block or quash the subpoena. Cornell also could, like Professor Charles Nesson at Harvard, actively refuse to help the RIAA’s police mission. As he points out, the purpose of a University is to teach, not enforce an archaic notion of copyright.
I’m disappointed that Rob didn’t quote my response to one of questions:
(4) As you acknowledged in your coverage, the RIAA has not sued a Harvard student yet. Is there anything Cornell can do to protect its students?
Fire Tracy Mitrano. Instead of writing memos like www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/dcplus.html when she receives a request to police the Cornell LAN, she could write a letter categorically refusing to do so, as is the University’s right under the safe-harbour provisions of the DMCA.
It was designed to spark a little outrage and to highlight the fact that she’s not doing her job, unless her salary is coming from the RIAA and MPAA. Note that I am not a lawyer, and in no way this post should constitute any sort of legal advice.
Update: Hurray, I’ve been misquoted by Tracy Mitrano who writes in today’s Sun that “a DC++ posting”–hey we call that a blog entry–concludes with the statement “Fire Mitrano”–which as you can see it does not. It actually concluded with “Fire Tracy Mitrano,” an error so severe given the ready access to the source material above, that I’m not surprised the article offers no insight into what happens when Cornell actually receives a subpoena, or what Cornell is doing to protect its students from predatory lawsuits.
| This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 8:19 pm and is tagged with professor charles nesson, cornell alumnus, writing memos, policy memos, hub server, dc hub, music pirates, harvard student, ridiculous statements, police mission, filing a motion, fond memories, private file, no doubt, last september, terabytes, riaa, video files, kitsch, subpoena. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
5 Responses to “Inside the Hub: File Sharing at Cornell”
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Hi Elliott,
I think you have some grave misunderstandings about how Cornell deals with the RIAA and the DMCA notices.
First of all, Cornell does not monitor the network. ever. Even after the RIAA sends a complaint, they still don’t monitor it.
Second of all, Tracey Mitrano forwards DMCA notices on to students for their own good. I mean, lets explore for a second what would happen if she did not forward on the DMCA notices. Cornell would get the notice, and not tell the student. The student would have no reason to believe they were in hot water with the RIAA. Next, the RIAA would wait the settlement period on the letter they sent to Cornell, and get no response. Then they would get angry, and sue the living daylights out of the student by subpoena-ing their information. Then the student could come back at Cornell and say, Wait a second, I could have settled for 3000 dollars and no one told me?? Now they are trying to sue me for thousands more than that!!
In other words, by not sending on the DMCA letters, Cornell could screw a lot more people then if they had not.
Also, I think you should learn more about what Tracey Mitrano stands for before you go trolling about her on your blog.
Have a pleasant day,
Jenna
Do you think that firing Tracy Mitrano will solve the problem? Her CIT memo is not partisan. She is giving us (students) information that we need to know. She is not telling us not to use the hub, but merely the possible consequences of using the hub.
While I don’t agree with RIAA’s aggressive tactics and its seeking excessive punitive damages from college students, firing Tracy, opens up the possibility of getting someone else hired who may be more willing to cater to RIAA and may even be open to the idea of monitoring campus networks, which is an idea that Tracy is decidedly against.
So maybe Cornell is not doing as much as, say Harvard, to protect its students. It is not, however, in Cornell’s mission statement to defend its students’ illegal activities. Cornell could, of course, decide to support its students in what could be considered civil disobedience, but I don’t think it’s an obligation of Cornell’s to have to invest resources to defend what is, at the moment, an illegal action.
On the other hand, students are not doing much to help their situation. To date, no Cornell student has ever decided to take their DMCA notices and take RIAA to trial. If Cornellians want more support from the University, so far, we haven’t asked for it.
Hi Jenna,
I think you don’t understand anything about how the DMCA works.
First, in this unremarkable short piece, I don’t claim that Cornell monitors its networks. If I thought it did, the tone would have been much more angry. If it actually did, it would lose DMCA safe-harbor status, which would be an administrative nightmare.
Second, Tracy is required by law to forward DMCA notices–I have no problem with that. It’s the parts of what happens before and afterwards that I have an issue with. From the student’s perspective, Cornell University perpetually sides with the RIAA and MPAA and plays helpless while following their litigious orders. If the University has ever serviced a so-called “John Doe” subpoena asking to correlate an ip-address with a student’s name, they’ve made a grave mistake.
That said, if I had the time and was still a Cornell student, I’d probably take INFO 515 for the chance to get a better understanding of the Administration’s point of view on these things.
[...] New Bill Addresses File Sharing on College Campuses Elliott Back recently posted a blog entry dealing with file sharing at Cornell. He was extremely concerned with how the administration handles takedown notices: Cornell is able to block copyright holders from identifying alleged music pirates by filing a motion to block or quash the subpoena. Cornell also could, like Professor Charles Nesson at Harvard, actively refuse to help the RIAA’s police mission. … the purpose of a University is to teach, not enforce an archaic notion of copyright. [...]
Nice work catching that GLARING inaccuracy in the article. I mean, “Fire Mitrano” and “Fire Tracy Mitrano” are totally different. Also, I agree with everything Cornellian said (which you totally forgot to respond to, Elliot).