Re: DMCA

[randy marchany <marchany () VT EDU>]

There are a number of legitimate reasons for allowing P2P traffic assuming
your net has the bandwidth to support it.

1. We're a land-grant edu. Our extension division uses P2P to distribute
videos and other material to their customers.
2. I know of some research and teaching units that use P2P to distribute
educational material to net users. I'm sure music and technology groups use
P2P to distribute their material.
3. There is NO DMCA related reason to prohibit P2P for transmitting
music/movie files where copyright permission *has been granted*. This is my
whole complaint with the HEOA and the wholesale banning of P2P. The issue
is whether the files being transmitted via P2P are permitted under
copyright. My band allows distribution of our music files anywhere on the
net. We give explicit permission to do so. I would encourage anyone
downloading our material to use P2P. The RIAA (and I'm a member through my
band)/MPAA tactic of trying to ban P2P is like saying kill Fedex/UPS/USPS
because they allow "illegal" material to be sent by them. It's the files
NOT the medium. Will the RIAA/MPAA ban TCP/IP since that is also used to
transmit "illegal" files? (sorry for this statement) Yes, it takes some
work on our part to determine if the P2P use is legit.
4. Now that I've gotten off my soap box (sorry), yes, we have to adhere to
the current laws and regs. However, I'd like to remind everyone that a
careful analysis of how P2P is being used needs to be done to avoid a
perceived "security" issue from interfering with legitimate business use of
a technology. This is sort of like the old "default deny" firewall rule
strategy and its pitfalls.

Randy Marchany
CISO
VA Tech IT Security Office & Lab

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:04 AM, Brian L Cox <coxbl2 () unk edu> wrote:

> Ed,
>
> We block P2P traffic.  When we identify a new P2P application being used
> by a student we block their access to the network and require them to call
> and set up an appointment with our CIO before their access is restored.
> That application is then added to the default blocking list  This may seem
> a bit harsh but it has resulted in only 2 notices sent to us so far this
> year.  We will allow legitimate P2P traffic and so far the only P2P traffic
> allowed is for those using games that require P2P for updates etc.  We have
> yet to have anyone come forward with a legitimate educational use for P2P.
>   I am sure those applications exist, but we have not encountered them so
> far.   This brings up a second part to this question....what, if any,
> legitimate P2P applications have been identified being used on college
> campuses?
>
> _________________
> Brian L Cox
> Information Technology Services
> Assistant Director of Network Services
> University of Nebraska Kearney
> (308)865-8176