University of Kansas Cracks Down on File Sharing
The University of Kansas has a new no-tolerance policy for file sharing and other forms of copyright infringement. On its Resnet website there is the following notice, in prominent red text:
Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.
Ars Technica, as usual, is quick to point out that “there is plenty of copyrighted material that can be downloaded legally.” They also note that with regular file sharing on the rise, college students are moving to on-campus darknets run with programs like DC++ to share their materials. While I attended Cornell, the on campus DC++ hub had over 19 TB of shared files.
Why the sudden action? The RIAA is playing hardball, filing twice as many takedown complaints in 2005 as 2004, and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) of the House Judiciary Committee appears to have taken up the position as well, saying that “Universities have a moral and legal obligation to ensure students do not use campus computers for illegal downloading.”
It’s a new world we have, where information can be exchanged regardless of borders, copyright, or protection. For media companies to continue to make money, they need to find way to embrace open sharing, rather than trying to litigate it to death. When it’s our generation that controls the country, obviously the viewpoint on file sharing will change, and I believe the media conglomerates won’t be ready.
| This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm and is tagged with digital millennium copyright act, media conglomerates, lamar smith, dc hub, house judiciary committee, legal obligation, campus computers, tolerance policy, illegal downloading, copyright infringement, shared files, hardball, university of kansas, quot, riaa, viewpoint, cornell, cracks, college students, borders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
One Response to “University of Kansas Cracks Down on File Sharing”
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Ah, the good ol’ days of the Hub. The 2003 version of the hub was actually created to avoid the 2$/gig NUBB charges introduced by Cornell that year (which was an effort by Cornell to reduce the Kazaa traffic from the previous year). Ironically, the success of the hub arguably increased piracy, yet decreased piracy that would most likely get Cornell and/or students in trouble (since it all took place within Resnet).