Re: Peer to Peer Blocking

[Joel Rosenblatt <joel () COLUMBIA EDU>]

We don't do any blocking of P2P at Columbia.  We also do a lot of user education about the evils of copyright 
infringement and vigorously pursue any take down
requests.  We do bandwidth shaping for both upload and download strictly based on volume of traffic (we are protocol 
agnostic).  A department can apply for an
exemption if the are running a server.  A good side effect of this is that if a machine is being used for a DDOS 
attack, it is usually limited by default.

Our docs if your interested: <http://www.columbia.edu/acis/news/network-quota-09-2004.html>

Joel Rosenblatt

Joel Rosenblatt, Senior Security Officer & Windows Specialist, AcIS
Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033
http://www.columbia.edu/~joel


--On Monday, March 07, 2005 12:14 PM -0500 Tracy Mitrano <tbm3 () CORNELL EDU> wrote:

> It might bear reminding that the file share programs themselves are
> not illegal -- the Supreme Court will hear the Grokster v. MPAA on
> precisely this point later this month.  The central question, as you
> might imagine, is whether these programs "contribute" to copyright
> infringement.  There are many sources of information on this case,
> here is just one:
> http://news.corporate.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/mpaa/
>
> At Cornell we use a combination of education on copyright, including
> a policy tutorial program that incoming students must complete before
> they gain any further access to our network, and strict compliance,
> including the procedure that first time violators of "notice and take
> down" from copyright holders go Judicial Administration for
> discipline, to address the problem of copyright infringement
> directly.  Indirectly, network billing, where bandwidth is charged by
> the byte, has helped control outbound traffic tremendously.  We have
> packet-shaping technology, but our bandwidth is now sufficiently
> under control by the users themselves so that network engineers no
> longer need to engage it.  Unscientifically, I also think that it has
> helped keep the number of copyright notices down significantly.
>
> A final thought on whole-sale blocking of file share technologies, at
> least until or at such time as the law changes: a commitment to
> academic freedom and a policy traditional of non-content monitoring
> here at Cornell here pretty much rules out this option.
>
> Tracy
>
> > Our college has received Copyright warnings from the Recording
> > Industry concerning what they believe to be improper music downloads
> > using 'peer to peer' networks, such as BearShare, BitTorent,
> > LineWire, Gnutella, KaZaA, etc.
> >
> > Has anyone implemented a  'peer to peer' Blocking service to address
> > this issue?  Pros and Cons?  Or are there other solutions?
> >
> > Ability is what you're capable of doing.
> >     Motivation determines what you do.
> >         Attitude determines how well you do it.
> > -Lee Holz
> >
> > Jim Schug
> > Information Security Instructor
> >  http://oncampus.matc.edu/infosec
> > Milwaukee Area Technical College
> > 5555 West Highland Road, Mequon, WI 53092  USA
> > Phone: (262) 238-2267 ********** Participation and subscription
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Joel Rosenblatt, Senior Security Officer & Windows Specialist, AcIS
Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033
http://www.columbia.edu/~joel

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