Re: RIAA DMCA notices malformed this school year

[Tracy Mitrano <tbm3 () CORNELL EDU>]

On Sep 11, 2008, at 3:39 PM, Paul B. Henson wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Sep 2008, Tracy Mitrano wrote:
>
> > that is now the "discipline" for first time offenders.  [For repeat
> > offenders, as you note per 512(a) we "terminate" ... their account
> > for
> > four weeks.]
>
> What action would you take if a student claimed innocence? While
> they most
> likely were sharing copyrighted files (I think it is a rare college
> student
> nowadays that does not) the investigative techniques of the **AA
> are not
> exactly technologically sound, and hardly satisfy the requirement of
> reasonable doubt (or even preponderance of evidence for civil
> cases). We've
> received complaints where the filename was similar to a song, but the
> actual content was created by and belonged to a faculty member. We
> have
> received complaints listing an IP address in our /16 for a subnet
> which was
> not even allocated and which could not have possibly generated
> traffic. And
> then there was the experiment (http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/) which
> resulted in notices received for printers 8-/.

When we are not sure of the user, or the notice hits a printer or
unregistered wireless access point (increasingly rare on our campus),
we let it go and would provide the same answer, by the way, if it
were under subpoena.   We also have procedures for students who claim
a compromise, which with our strong security program is also
increasingly a rare occurrence.  Many, many students, especially
first year, do not understand how the file share systems work,
including and especially in the case where they have legally
purchased media and downloaded it onto their computer and then also
have a file share system running that searches the hard drive for all
available copies for distribution, but very few ever say to me "I did
not know this media was on my computer."

The "making available" legal issue is an interesting one, however,
and worthy of focused attention not only in the courts but within our
campus judicial administration.  For one view:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/04/making-available-distribution-
says-court-london-sire-v-doe

> > approaches not only to DMCA but to the whole panoply of challenges
> > that
> > higher education faces in this area, and especially in light of
> > the new
> > provisions in the Reauthorized Higher Education Act.
>
> Don't even get me started on the lunacy of the federal government
> attempting to pervert institutions of higher education into private
> corporation's personal copyright police :(. When did "government of
> the
> people, by the people, for the people" turn into "government of the
> politicians, by the lobbyists, for the corporations" ?

I am with you, brother!  Sometime after the Civil War is my
historical calculation and certainly not what A. Lincoln had in mind
when considering for what reasons we engaged in a "great civil
war."   As a society I believe that we focus a disproportionate
degree of "rights" attention on government based on our history of
being colonies of Great Britain in the 18th century.  But given how
corporations -- global as well as domestic -- have altered the
landscape of social and political relations at least in the 20th and
21 centuries it seems to me that this focus could benefit from
realignment in exactly the directions that you suggest.  At the core
of the issue is the legal definition of a corporation in the modern
political economy: a "person," which provides all the rights of an
individual but often with the economic benefits of alleviating actual
people individuals of liability.  (See recent headlines on the
parachutes for mortgage corporation executives who were at the helm
while their risks and policies ran their corporations into the ground
and now in the arms of taxpayers.)
> > So in short: we do act on the notices, but we do so as a matter of
> > policy, and in the spirit of our educational missions, and not
> > because we
> > believe that the law requires us to do so specifically when we are
> > the
> > conduit and most definitely not out of a fear of content industry.
>
> Copyright was originally intended to foster the public good.
> Authors were
> granted exclusive control over their works for a limited period of
> time as
> an encouragement to create such works, which would eventually
> become public
> domain for the enrichment and betterment of all. It was never
> intended to
> guarantee that Disney could milk Mickey Mouse for all eternity
> (considering
> how many of their works are based on public domain material it's
> awfully
> hypocritical of them). Currently copyright has been extended to
> seventy
> years after death; anyone like to bet on the likelihood of another
> extension around 2036?
>
> Personally, I have no sympathy for the copyright woes of the RIAA
> and MPAA.
> If they're going to change the rules of the game, why should people
> still
> have to play? Technology has destroyed their business model, the
> government
> should no more try to artificially prop it up than it should have
> attempted
> to prevent the telephone from replacing the telegraph.
>
> If I had my druthers, we would do the absolute minimum required by law
> while educating our students about the historical purpose of
> copyright and
> attempting to push the balance of government a bit farther back to the
> "people" direction...
>
>
> --
> Paul B. Henson  |  (909) 979-6361  |  http://www.csupomona.edu/
> ~henson/
> Operating Systems and Network Analyst  |  henson () csupomona edu
> California State Polytechnic University  |  Pomona CA 91768

I am with you all the way, Paul.  Indeed I believe that the current
imbalance between outmoded law and business models, new data
networking technologies and emerging social norms has created a
substantial drag on our already beleaguered economy.  Part and parcel
of our unwillingness to confront the difficult but very real
questions of our day, to name a few: gross economic inequities played
out especially in terms of medical care around the world,
environmental sustainability, the complexities of globalization in a
world built on the nation-state model and, not least, the myriad
policy questions that surround an international information economy.

Now you really have me on a roll!

Want to have a drink together in Orlando ... together with anyone
else interested in spirited discussion about the relationship of what
we do everyday and its meaning to the world?

Tracy