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IP: Colleges and universities turned into music cops?
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2002 15:21:37 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com> Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2002 11:27:55 -0800 To: farber () cis upenn edu Subject: Colleges and universities turned into music cops? What struck me as odd in this story was that University of Buffalo took action against its students and staffers as a result of contact in the matter by NetPD, an anti-piracy company, located in England, on behalf of Sony. Music cops http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20020302/1002465.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- The recording industry wants to curb downloading music from the Internet, so it's asking colleges to police computer use. But music lovers are staying a step ahead. By STEPHEN WATSON News Staff Reporter 3/2/2002 Napster is dead, long live the music. Big-name music companies - which already put the largest Internet music-sharing service out of business - now are enlisting colleges to crack down on students who download copyrighted music from new online companies. At the University at Buffalo, university authorities notified 25 students and two UB staff members last semester that they had been caught downloading copyrighted songs from two artists. And four or five Canisius students also were notified by college authorities that they had been caught doing the same. The UB and Canisius students were warned they could face legal action from record companies. They also were threatened with the loss of computer privileges and told to remove the music files from their computers. The college and university acted after being contacted by London-based NetPD, which is working on behalf of Sony and two of its musicians - Michael Jackson and the rock band Incubus. "We want fans to get music how they want it, when they want it, where they want it. We just want artists to be paid for their work," said Amy Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group that represents record labels. "We feel it's important to educate administrators and students about copy right and wrong on the Internet." Students aren't buying that argument. Kelly Miller, a UB sophomore from Silver Creek, said she downloaded about 400 songs using Napster and another 150 songs using KaZaA. "If all I do is keep it on my computer or burn a CD for my use, no," it's not wrong, Miller said, referring to the process for recording a homemade CD. "I think it's wrong how people burn CDs for other people or try to sell it." The crackdown represents a shift by the music industry, which previously focused its attack on companies, such as Napster, that run these music-sharing sites. But with Napster put out of business, copycat sites that are only superficially different - with such names as Aimster, KaZaA and MusicCity - sprouted up. Given these sites' continued popularity, the record companies now are going after the users, many of them college students. The record company hired NetPD, an Internet policing site that searches through the millions of music files floating in cyberspace for an individual track, then identifies who downloaded the song. NetPD sent violation notices to administrators of the computer networks at UB, Canisius and other colleges around the country. Still, this legal effort has raised questions on college campuses. UB and most other universities don't monitor their students' Internet use on the university's network. "We can't get into content, under First Amendment concerns," said Harvey S. Axlerod, UB's computer discipline officer. The university takes action only when a potential violation is reported, such as a student who reports receiving a threatening e-mail from another student. Given all that, college administrators have said they feel uncomfortable enforcing federal copyright laws at the request of a private concern. But they felt it was their responsibility, after receiving the NetPD notice, to inform the students that they should stop downloading the copyrighted music. The crackdown doesn't seem to be affecting UB's students, several of whom said they don't think there is anything wrong with what they're doing. "It's easier to download a song than to go out and buy a CD on the chance I wouldn't like it," said Michael Monahan, a sophomore political science major at UB, who said he has downloaded about 500 songs from Napster, using it as a chance to preview songs from new albums. [...snip...] Practical concerns Beyond legal and ethical questions, universities like UB continue to wrestle with a more practical problem that music sharing creates for their computer systems. The music files being downloaded take up lots of space on computer systems, space that is expensive for colleges to add to their networks, UB's Lesniak said. If a large amount of space is used by students downloading music, that's network capacity that can't be used for research or other academic purposes. "It's killing the rest of the system," UB's Axlerod said. UB and Canisius both have tinkered with their networks to make it more difficult for students to either bring in music files or - in the case of UB - to send them out. But college officials admit that trying to use technology to stop the flow of music on the Internet is like trying to catch sand in your hands. "I think we're always going to be half a step behind," said Cary Anderson, the dean of students at Canisius. ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: Colleges and universities turned into music cops? Dave Farber (Mar 02)