Re: US Lawmakers Demand That Colleges Crack Down on Il legal File Sharing

["St. Laurent, Tim" <tstlaure () RICHMOND EDU>]

Very interesting article.  I'm wondering if they are pushing the big ISPs
(i.e. AT&T/Comcast, AOL, etc.) for the same thing?  I'm guessing NO!!!!


----------University of Richmond----------
Tim St. Laurent, CISSP, RHCE, MCSE
Security Administrator
*tstlaure () richmond edu
*804-289-8655




-----Original Message-----
From: H. Morrow Long [mailto:morrow.long () YALE EDU]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 4:16 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] US Lawmakers Demand That Colleges Crack Down on Illegal
File Sharing


Thursday, February 27, 2003

http://chronicle.com/free/2003/02/2003022701t.htm


Lawmakers Demand That Colleges Crack Down on Illegal File Sharing By ANDREA
L. FOSTER

Washington

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives admonished university
administrators on Wednesday to get tougher with students who swap music and
video material online in violation of copyright law.

The representatives, members of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet,
and Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary, told
administrators from Pennsylvania State University, the University of North
Carolina, and the University of Tulsa that the way to really convince
students that illegal file sharing is wrong is to expel or prosecute them.

The college administrators questioned by the congressmen were Graham B.
Spanier, president of Penn State at University Park; Robyn R. Render, chief
information officer of the North Carolina system; and John Hale, director of
the Center for Information Security at Tulsa.

Rep. William L. Jenkins, a Tennessee Republican, repeatedly asked the
administrators whether they had tried to get government lawyers to prosecute
recalcitrant students.

"We don't handle it that way," said Mr. Spanier. The university tries first
to educate students about copyright infringement and then, failing that,
restricts or ends their ability to gain access to the network, he said.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, pressed the administrators about
whether they had ever expelled a student for illegal file sharing, and was
told no.

"Until this committee and the universities are willing to do something about
this, we're just wasting everyone's time," she said.

Ms. Waters speculated that college officials are too afraid to go after
their largely "middle class" student population but probably would not
hesitate to prosecute poor students from the inner city.

Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, a New York Democrat, told the university
administrators that their students would probably stop illegal file sharing
if the computers they used for the activity suddenly ignited in flames.

Hilary B. Rosen, chief executive officer of the Recording Industry
Association of America, told the committee that the association would
consider prosecuting individual students who illegally swapped music online.
"Nothing is off the table," she said. The association sends out about 2,500
notices a month to universities warning them of illegal file sharing on
their networks, she added.

Mr. Spanier and Ms. Render said they were hopeful that a committee made up
of university administrators and representatives from the entertainment
industry could come up with a solution to the problem of illegal file
sharing by college students. Mr. Spanier is a co-chairman of the committee,
which is considering technological and other methods to reduce peer-to-peer
file sharing.

But the lawmakers said legislation might be needed to deal with the problem.
"What's been done in education and enforcement hasn't worked that well,"
said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who is chairman of the House
subcommittee.

And Rep. John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat, noted that Congress had
considered legislation that would require people convicted of sharing
copyrighted material online to serve at least five years in prison.

"We have to see from the education community a ratcheting up of concern
about this," said Mr. Conyers.



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