more on EPIC Letter on P2P Monitoring

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

The graph is very interesting.  Djf

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rich Wiggins <wiggins () msu edu>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 09:34:20 -0500 (EST)
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: hoofnagle () epic org
Subject: Re: <[IP]> EPIC Letter on P2P Monitoring

Dave,

Would EPIC demand that the University of Wisconsin-Madison take down
these graphs?

http://wwwstats.net.wisc.edu

(Scroll about 1/3 down to see cost of Kazaa etc on their campus.
The packet graphs are a better measure than the per-bit.)

It's ironic that the EPIC statement worries that universities can't
afford the "scarce resources" to do network monitoring.  What about
the scarce resource of the campus network?  P2P file sharing consumes
a huge percentage of both on-campus networks as well as fat
pipes to the greater Internet.  P2P is impeding real work of
students and researchers as it costs universities millions of
dollars in capital costs and in upstream/downstream Internet bandwidth.

I wish EPIC had distinguished between aggregated monitoring versus
monitoring individual usage as part of a fishing expedition.
Aggregated monitoring tells you how the network is being used
and helps you plan for expansion or managing the network.
It's no different than measuring traffic on a physical highway.

Tracking an individual's usage with no prior evidence is a whole
'nother thing; EPIC's arguments are stronger there.  The analogy
would be police stopping individuals and searching their cars
with no probable cause.

Universities probably should've seen P2P coming.  They built
broadband into the dorms and urged the students to connect
at 100 megabits to gigabit campus backbones with gigabit
pipes to the greater Internet.  One thing about Internet
history is you can't predict the next killer app.

It is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons.
Hal Varian and Jeff Mackie-Mason essentially predicted where we
are now circa 1993.  There is no easy answer, as the vast bulk
of today's undergraduates are completely immune to an appeal
that hinges on the law or the moral rights of copyright holders.

/rich



> Subject: EPIC Letter on P2P Monitoring
> <[the]>
> proposal would shift the burden to colleges and universities to devote
> scarce resources to monitoring online communications and to identifying and
> "prosecuting" individuals suspected of using P2P networks to commit
> copyright violations. This is neither a reasonable nor an appropriate
> burden to place on institutions of higher education. Refusing to accept
> this burden will not leave the copyright trade associations without
> recourse in cases of infringement via P2P networks; instead, the power to
> authorize policing and adjudicate guilt or innocence will remain where it
> belongs, in the courts. If a copyright owner suspects such infringement, it
> can initiate a lawsuit against the suspected wrongdoer.


------ End of Forwarded Message

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