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

[Ced Bennett <Ced.Bennett () STANFORD EDU>]

An excellent point, Merri Beth.

And, I can confirm that our experiences here at Stanford as similar to
yours.  We almost never have repeat complaints against the same individual.


Ced Bennett
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cedric Bennett          Ph (650) 723-0728        Fax (650) 723-2011
Director of Information Security Services
  Information Technology Systems & Services
Stanford University
Polya Hall, Room 103
255 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94305-3055                   Ced.Bennett () Stanford edu



| -----Original Message-----
| From: The EDUCAUSE Security Discussion Group Listserv
| [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of
| Lavagnino, Merri B
| Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 7:39 AM
| To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
| Subject: Re: [SECURITY] US Lawmakers Demand That Colleges
| Crack Down on Illegal File Sharing
|
|
| Below is an article in which some statistics reported show
| why they are focusing on universities. (See the third
| paragraph down, starting "The hearing was the first..") But
| still they do not address Alex's question about what number
| of NOTICES are sent.
|
| What strikes me as most important in our experiences here at
| Indiana University is that we seldom have repeat offenders.
| That tells me the students learn from the process we have in
| place to notify them of the complaint and teach them about
| the law. I think this is very positive and tells us that our
| efforts are successful, but this positive aspect does not
| appear to be addressed in these meetings. I do not think the
| RIAA and MPAA realize that we have a constantly revolving
| community of users and so this is NOT a process in which we
| teach our users and then there are no more infringments ever
| again. It is a constant process to reach the huge numbers of
| new users who join our community every semester, and our data
| concerning the receipt and processing of DMCA notices shows
| us that the procedures we have in place to respond to notices
| is successful in stopping infringement by those individuals.
|
| They could, of course, state that our educational efforts
| should be so successful as to stop the initial instance of
| infringement that they have to send us notices about, but,
| they cannot claim, in at least our case and based on data
| about their notices, that our efforts to respond when we are
| notified of an infringement are not producing the desired
| results. If they wish to reduce the initial number of notices
| sent to Universities each year, they need to target
| individuals before they reach the age of 17 or 18 and hit our
| campuses. We do what we can to educate them when they arrive
| but they are also being educated in a lot of other things at
| the same time and this particular message is easily missed
| among all the others! There is no reason why the music and
| movie industries could not undertake such an educational
| campaign, similar to campaigns to keep children off drugs and
| cigarettes, that would help reduce the number of individuals
| that have to be educated on this issue at the late age of 17 or 18...
|
| Merri Beth
|
| Merri Beth Lavagnino
| Deputy Information Technology Policy Officer
| Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
| Indiana University
| (317) 274-3739
|
| > -----Original Message-----
| > From: AAU Listmail [mailto:AAU_LISTMAIL () aau edu]
| > Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 4:21 PM
| > To: undisclosed-recipients
| > Subject: CFR UPDATE (03-#38, 2-27-03 PM)
| >
| >
| >
| > February 27, 2003 PM
| >
| > To:           Council on Federal Relations
| > cc:           AAU Public Affairs Network, AAU Associates
| > From:         AAU Staff
| > Subject:      CFR UPDATE (03-#38, 2-27-03 PM)
| >
| > *     Summary of House Hearing on "Peer-to-Peer Piracy on University
| > Campuses"
| >
| > The Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
| Subcommittee held
| > a hearing February 26 on peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on
| university
|
| > campuses.  The witnesses testifying before the subcommittee were:
| >
| > --Hilary Rosen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the
| Recording
| > Industry Association of America; --Graham Spanier, President of The
| > Pennsylvania State University; --Robyn Render, Vice President for
| > Information Resources and Chief Information Officer of the
| University
| > of North Carolina; and --John Hale, Assistant Professor of Computer
| > Science and Director of the Center for Information Security,
| > University of Tulsa.
| >
| > The hearing was the first under new subcommittee chairman
| Lamar Smith
| > (R-TX) and was heavily attended, with 17 subcommittee members in
| > attendance.  In his opening statement, Chairman Smith stated that
| > while P2P file sharing technology has many benefits, it
| also permits
| > the widespread distribution of digital music, movies, and software
| > files, often resulting in copyright infringement.  Smith cited data
| > from a P2P file sharing service which showed that 16% of files
| > available through that service at any given time were located at IP
| > addresses managed by U.S. educational institutions, and that file
| > traders from educational institution networks accounted for
| 10% of all
|
| > traders of the service at any given time.  "It's unlikely that this
| > amount of file-sharing activity is in furtherance of class
| > assignments," Smith observed.
| >
| > Almost all members made opening statements.  Although the statements
| > varied in tone and content-with some emphasizing P2P file
| sharing as
| > criminal activity and others noting the important role of
| the academic
|
| > community in the development of information technology, the
| legitimate
|
| > uses of P2P technology, and the importance of the entertainment
| > industry developing new business models-all members stated that
| > illegal P2P file sharing was a major problem requiring
| serious action.
| >
| > In her statement, Hilary Rosen stated that the hearing came at a
| > propitious time because illegal P2P file sharing is increasing but
| > legitimate on-line music subscription services are now
| available.  She
|
| > stated that P2P technology itself is not unlawful but most
| of its uses
|
| > are, and cited the ready acceptance of file sharing by college
| > students, aided by the fast Internet connections available to
| > them-often as a result of government funding intended for
| network use
| > in support of academic, research and other legitimate purposes.
| >
| > Rosen expressed particular concern for the growth of what she termed
| > LANNs-Local Area Napster Networks-intranets that eliminate
| the problem
|
| > Internet file sharing poses on institutional bandwidth.
| She expressed
|
| > optimism that the recent collaboration between the entertainment and
| > higher education communities would achieve real progress in
| reducing
| > unauthorized P2P file sharing and promoting legitimate
| on-line music
| > subscription services.
| >
| > Graham Spanier described the goals of the Joint Committee of the
| > Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, of which he is
| > co-chair, and its three task forces on campus education on
| copyright
| > and P2P file sharing, use of technology in managing P2P use, and
| > legislative issues. Spanier stated that higher education recognizes
| > that P2P file trading that constitutes copyright infringement is
| > illegal and should be stopped and that higher education
| institutions
| > have an obligation to educate their students about their legal and
| > ethical responsibilities.
| >
| > In turn, Spanier expressed the hope that entertainment industry
| > officials and policy makers such as members of the
| subcommittee would
| > understand the challenges that confront university
| administrators in
| > trying to eliminate or reduce inappropriate uses of P2P technology
| > without eliminating legitimate uses, without constricting academic
| > freedom and the open exchange of information, and with invading the
| > privacy of university students, faculty, and staff.
| >
| > Spanier described Penn State's copyright education programs,
| > acceptable use policies and due process procedures for dealing with
| > violations of university policies, as well as technological means
| > employed to control P2P use and disrupt infringing activities.  He
| > noted that no single educational program or technology
| policy would be
|
| > appropriate across the diversity higher education institutions and
| > stated that the Joint Committee's education and technology
| task forces
|
| > would seek to identify a range of options for addressing P2P misuse.
| >
| > Robyn Render stated that American universities are committed to
| > addressing the unauthorized trading of copyrighted
| materials but must
| > do so through policies and practices for network management that
| > accommodate core academic values.  Federal legislation that would
| > limit legitimate uses of P2P technology would threaten the central
| > values of the higher education community.  Render described
| a number
| > of actions that have taken place on the 16 campuses of the
| University
| > of North Carolina System to educate students about
| copyright generally
|
| > and P2P use specifically, and to employ network management and
| > monitoring tools to assist network administrators to manage traffic
| > types and network use.  UNC campuses employ education and
| counseling
| > for violators of copyright and acceptable use policies, but also
| > engage disciplinary procedures consistent with campus student
| > disciplinary procedures when necessary.
| >
| > John Hale noted that in addition to the legal and ethical problems
| > posed by student misuse of P2P technology, such use also poses
| > increased risk to network and computer security.  Filtering or
| > blocking techniques to control the downloading or uploading
| of files
| > of copyrighted material lead P2P developers to create new
| encryption
| > techniques to circumvent such techniques, leading to a
| "cat-and-mouse"
|
| > game played between P2P developers and network managers.
| Hale stated
| > that "it will take a combination of efforts on multiple
| fronts to help
|
| > this promising technology survive its adolescence."
| >
| > The question and answer period focused on what specific actions
| > universities were taking to eliminate illegal peer-to-peer file
| > trading. Members asked for evidence of reduction in the volume of
| > illegal file trading and whether any students had been arrested or
| > expelled for illegal file trading.  Graham Spanier said that he
| > thought progress had been made on eliminating cases of gross
| > infringement but that more moderate levels of inappropriate file
| > trading continued to be a problem. The higher education witnesses
| > restated the importance of addressing the problem within
| the context
| > of academic values and institutional due-process procedures
| and noted
| > that the problem of P2P misuse was not unique to college and
| > university campuses.
| >
| > Several members expressed their appreciation for efforts of higher
| > education to work cooperatively with the entertainment industry but
| > emphasized that their joint work needed to go beyond process to
| > results. One member stated emphatically that Congress
| needed to "see
| > more seriousness" from universities and that if results were not
| > forthcoming, Congress would step in with draconian solutions.
| >
| > End of Document
|
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Alex Campoe [mailto:campoe () USF EDU]
| Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 4:33 PM
| To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
| Subject: Re: [SECURITY] US Lawmakers Demand That Colleges
| Crack Down on Illegal File Sharing
|
|
| I wonder what percentage of the RIAA notes are sent to
| Colleges and Universities versus ISPs. What about statistics
| based on country of origin? Are any notes sent abroad? Has
| anyone ever seen any figures?
|
| Alex
|
| [previous communication deleted]
|
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