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Clemson University Bans Free Long Distance Sites
Jonathan the Nerd writes "An article in Clemson University's student newspaper, The Tiger, says that Dialpad.com and several other free long-distance sites have been blocked by Clemson's Division of Computing and Information Technology (DCIT). Chris Duckenfield, the vice provost for computing and information technology, said that the reason for blocking the sites was to determine the 'impact on our Internet bandwidth,' as well as to protect the finances of Clemson Telecommunications, which provides long-distance service to students. However, he acknowledged that the bandwidth usage would probably be negligible, which is making students wonder if the University is simply trying to maintain a monopoly on long-distance service. "
Clemson's "customers" are better known as "taxpayers". If they kids aren't paying taxes, then they're not working and their parents are paying their tuition -- and the parents are working, I'll bet. And taxes pay for a big, big chunk of what happens at a state school.
Very different rules apply to a public institution and a private business. A state college is a public trust, paid for by the public and managed for them by the state. A business is owned by and responsible to its shareholders alone, or to an even smaller group if it's privately held. Clemson is the government, and it has no damned business protecting its interests at the expense of the taxpayers' interests, because its only legitimate role is to act in the taxpayers' interests.
But I suspect that you merely guessed wrong about the ownership of Clemson, and the above is pretty much what you'd be saying if you knew it was a state school. Of course, you might also suggest that the state has no business running colleges, and as a matter of fact I might well agree. But that's another discussion entirely.
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." --
Mr. Duckenfield:
I wish to express my extreme gratitude for your efforts in proving why there needs to be an enforced separation between the lines that deliver internet service to the home and the actual service that is delivered over those lines.
As we watch the market for Internet access dwindle down to only a handful of viable ISPs, your intrusive behavior into the internet usage of your captive audience of students will be a model studied for years to come. Your excuses, your justifications, and your rationalizations for interfering with the free flow of information to those whose pipes you have the technological ability to control will reverberate loudly as large scale ISPs seek to find just how many of their competitor's web sites they can "devaluate" by banning them, slowing them, or just plain redirected them elsewhere...and the fact that you're suppressing a problem that has not occurred yet will be brought up many a time by those who *will* eventually bring the pain of regulation upon you.
As large ISPs make faustian pacts to achieve affordable access to DSL and Cable systems in the face of the end of AOL's Freed Access crusade(they'd rather merge than give tiny ISPs the chance to serve customers that are "rightfully theirs"), the small ISPs who lack conflicts of interest and seek more to provide internet access than restrict, track, and "captively synergize" it will be shaken out. And in their dying breaths, Mr. Duckenfield, your name will come up.
Rather than providing better service, with a flip of a firewall rule, you provided the only serice. Rather than meeting the needs of the students, you made the students meet the needs of you. Rather than trust your product, you chose to trust your monopoly powers.
You won't be alone. There will be scandals upon scandals--maybe AT&T will be found looking at the logs for *@Home to determine what online services MCI and Sprint customers use most. Perhaps we'll start to see exclusivity agreements, where companies will pay to have exclusive access to any customer's high speed networking line--wanted to go to Yahoo? Sorry, we don't serve that, but Lycos is just as good!
After all, when you don't need to worry about your customers having anywhere else to go, you can do whatever the hell you like. That's what you're doing with your students, and that's what more than a few big business, check your ethics at the door types are planning.
What saddens me, Mr. Duckenfield, is that there was supposed to be a higher standard that educational institutions were held to. Perhaps we should fear the next generation of business school students out of Clemson. A school that's working towards The Depublished Internet Regime(where content deemed dangerously competitive is instantly depublished without any feasable alternative access) is not a school whose graduates I suppose I can trust.
So! Have you started blocking 1-800-Collect yet? Oh wait, I suppose that might actually be illegal...
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Wirehead dun said:
First off, it may be trivial, but it's also quite illegal. You see, legally, telephone providers (including universities and payphone providers) cannot block access to 1-800 numbers for calling cards, 10-10-xxx numbers, etc. because of several laws (including the Telecommunications Act of 1996, mandating that phone companies open up local lines to competition) and because of telephone companies' special legal status of a common carrier.
This is not to say that phone companies don't do it illegally, though. Many university phone providers illegally block 1-800 access numbers and 10-10-xxx access numbers; COCOT pay phones (COCOTS are small, for-profit telephone companies outside the local monopolies that run pay phone services in which the person who allows the phone on his property gets a considerable cut--in fact, many of the same parties that run COCOT pay phones also run university phone systems) are downright infamous for blocking equal access, as are hotel telephone services; occasionally, one of the "big boy" telcos will do it as well (I've run into GTE pay phones at Bristol Motor Speedway that will not accept access to other phone companies--neither by calling card nor by 10-10-xxx number--though fortunately they've not figured out how to block personal 1-800 numbers yet :).
If your university/pay phone/etc. IS blocking 1-800 access numbers for collect calls or calling cards, and/or if it blocks 10-10-xxx phone numbers, give a call to your state's Public Utilities Commission (it is normally in the phone book in the information section or in the Blue Pages). Explain that the telco is blocking equal access by blocking 10-10-xxx or calling-card access (whichever applies)--as noted, this is flatly illegal, and it is one of the few things that PSCs and the FCC (which regulates the telephone industry) will clue-by-four telephone companies over (some COCOT operators have actually lost their "license" to operate a telephone company because they blocked equal access).
I suspect that most universities that use these COCOT-style services as "dorm telephone service" aren't aware of the laws regarding equal access, and think of it as a "business agreement" much like they'd see an exclusive contract with a soft-drink distributor. Alas, Coke and Pepsi distributors generally aren't subject to common-carrier laws like telcos are :)
You'll also want to contact the phone company you have calling-card access with (or whom you get 10-10-xxx access through) and notify them that your university (or COCOT phones) are blocking access to alternate providers. Many long-distance companies are all too happy to sic the FCC on folks who illegally block 1-800 calling-card access and/or 10-10-xxx access (AT&T among them).
More info than you ever cared to see about telcos, and the laws affecting them, here, and info specifically on equal access here and h ere and even a cute little Postscript complaint sticker that gives info about the laws regarding equal access. :)
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
Warning: This post is LONG.
As a former student of Clemson, I'd like to share a few unhappy facts about the university's allocation of resources.
Fact #1: DCIT is the Micro$oft of Clemson.
They have traditionally been so clueless that the bigger colleges formed their own computing support infrastructures. A good example is the College of Engineering and Science. They have their own support infrastructure known as Engineering Computer Operations. They have all their own routers, computers, etc... All because DCIT couldn't deliver on competence and facilities in the past. To be fair, DCIT has improved service over the years-Cisco everywhere, for example. Campus-to-campus connections are now nice and fast.
Fact #2: Clemson's administration == clueless and deaf
It is the administration and leadership (Duckenfield included) that live life without a clue.
Just some background, and information, so that everyone has a little history. I arrived at clemson in 92 as an engineering major. I discovered these cool Sun workstations on a network NOT managed by DCIT that I could use to do gopher, and even some web browsing.
I think that sometimes, you could go to a DCIT lab, and the dot matrix printers there might work.
In 97 or so, they started introducing "resnet", which was ethernet in the dorms. It was only available in the two most expensive dorms (20-40% > other dorms), and cost $40/semester. The service was lousy but hey, it was a start. In 98, DCIT completed wiring the other dorms on campus, and elimintated the $40 setup fee. Suddenly there were around 5000-6000 new nodes on the campus network, full-time, surfing, ftp'ing mp3's, etc.
Clemson only had three T1's at that point. You do the math.
You were lucky to get 800 *bytes per second* between 7am-3am. Imagine downloading Solaris patch clusters with that handicap.
Also in early 98, DCIT proposed (and the administration approved) a mandatory $50 "technology fee," to be paid yearly by all students in the interest of improving campus computing resources. Multiply that by 17000 students... $850000/year income from this alone!
Sounds like a great qualifier for funding more bandwidth, right? Wrong.
Everyone from the students to the deans fought tooth and nail to have the pipe upgraded. And in TWO YEARS (think internet time...) it never happened. "Not enough funds." (in the background, CHA-CHING CHA-CHING $850000/year).
Many resnet users switched to faster 33.6k and 56k modems, using local ISP's, just to get better performance than on-campus ethernet.
When I left in may.99, they still only had three T1's. I understand they upgraded recently, not sure to what since I'm not there any more. In the meantime, DCIT has been blissfully upgrading all lab PC's every 6 months. I guess we know where the $850000 goes. Terrible management of resources!
Well I guess I'll end my rant. I'd go ahead and post about Clemson putting the firewall in between the dorms and the internet backwards (protecting the internet from the dorms!) and required all off-campus traffic to be authenticated agains their NDS tree--but I'm sure someone else will do it. If there's enough demand and I don't see it appear I'll post it later.
Thanks,
DragonWyatt
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
As I'm sure you're aware, your school sells books.
;-)
As I'm also sure you're aware, so do alot of other places on the Internet.
Now, however much students spend on average on phone service, I *promise* you it pales to the sheer amount of cash that flows through your campus bookstore. I also promise you that there are more than a few nervous staff members who are hearing the ads proclaiming lower prices, better service, and higher availability.
Guess who they're coming to, Mr. Duckenfield?
As long as you're blocking sites, you might as well eliminate bigwords.com, ecampus.com, varsitybooks.com, and (horrors!) textbooks.com. Maybe even throw Amazon into the fray--why not? It's your net to do with as you see fit, right?
Oh. I forgot. Your department doesn't sell books. Your school does, but your personal budget doesn't depend on the sale of those books. So who cares if some other department loses out...but as soon as some as of yet non-serious threat to your income opens up, that's something completely different, I suppose?
Since you're a college, you likely have a contract with Coca Cola. Your school saves alot of money by having that contract, which specifically prohibits Pepsi products on campus. I'd say a Pepsi web page is a Pepsi product, no? Poof, off they go. Wouldn't want to lose that contract.
You see, Mr. Duckenfield, there's a concept out there called Content Neutrality. As long as you don't modify or inhibit the data stream along the lines of *what*'s going over them, you're free to forward whatever is handed to you.
However, once you claim the role of gatekeeper, particularly gatekeeper to your captive fiefdom(where apparently people call collect to save money!), you claim the ability, the responsibility, and the liability to evaluate and handle any traffic which flows over those lines.
Better catalog every service your school provides, because apparently you can't handle the competition--not even a little.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
P.S. Yes, this is my second post on the topic. So sue me
"These are so much monopolies as they are licenses. In my neck of the woods, Mariot pays for the rights to and provides the food service for on-campus. This benefits of a system like this typically outweigh any concequences. "
In my college and in others, freshmen and sophomore were not allowed to live off campus. No good reason except the campus made money. A friend of mine was forced to pay for food she did not eat and a room she did not sleep in for one and a half years. She was living off campus with her boyfriend after the first semester. She tried to get out of it, but to no avail. There is no excuse for this, but colleges do this all the time. I don't think the benefits outweighed the consequences.
The freshmen dorms were especially hell holes. Noise, filth, and abuse filled the guy's dorm. The girls dorm was only slightly better. There was no choice for freshmen but to live there.
I was married and so they had to let me live in an apartment. When i lived in the on campus apartment they routinely tried to cut essential services during break even though i rented month to month and not by the semester. One year this nearly meant going without long distance service for december. I threatend to go to the local news and tell them that they were not going to let me call mom on christmas and that got their attention enough to relent and not cut phone service. The did cut the heat during thanksgiving break. They also did not put smoke alarms in the apartment until i called the fire marshall after a grease fire in mine. Oh, that is when i learned you can't dial 911 from on campus. I asked them to do something and they refused until i went crying to the fire marshall. Colleges are corporations and will behave as egregiously as they can get away with. My school was run by Franciscan Friars and yet they put profit over student well being and safety. Last i checked you still could not dial 911 from there.
This is one more example of a college putting profit ahead of all else. I hope someone will do something to stop them.
--- If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask the question.
My name is Brandon and I'm a sophomore at Clemson University. I have used dialpad quite a lot while I've been here at school, and then one infamous Friday, I wasn't able to call my parents or family anymore.
WHY THEY SHUT IT DOWN
Many of you who do not live at Clemson may not know this, but the University has a monopoly on the long distance services here. They run businesses such as Tiger Tel whose profits pay for different campus services. This is the single reason for their shutting Dialpad down. There have been other excuses produced by the University such as "evaluating the legal and academic nature of the site." First of all, there is NO clause in the terms of use for the Clemson network that call for "strictly acedemic use," despite the fact that Dialpad is indeed used for academic purposes. Secondly, there is NO legal question concerning Dialpad. The Clemson network has made no effort to block illegal sites in the past, illegal pornography, illegal pirating, etc. And of course, Dialpad doesn't even begin to rival these sites in its illicit nature.
THEY DON'T WANT US TO KNOW
Not only has Clemson made a rather socialist move by blocking Dialpad to maintain their monopoly over long distance service, they also betrayed the trust of their student body. The same Friday that Dialpad access was terminated, an email went out to all the employees of the computer help desk that read:
"Access to the dialpad.com website has been blocked until the university can access the situation. We are studying the impact of Dialpad's exploding use on our Internet connection. The Internet connection exists for academic use."
That's all it said. That's all anyone at the University knew for the longest time. And of course the bandwidth problem was quoted as "negligible" in THE TIGER. So what was going on? Many students here would call DCIT, (Department of Communications and Information Technology, here at Clemson) and ask what was going on. I myself called on multiple occasions. Each time I was given a different reason. At first it was that they were "assessing the impact on the university," then it was "it's affecting the bandwidth," then "it's only for academic use." Finally, I was referred to the curator of the Help Desk. I wanted to know who had issued the decision to block Dialpad. She absolutely refused to tell me, citing that she was "not allowed to distribute that information."--I told her it sounded like we were being blocked by the illuminadi. This does not sound like a University that supports the will of its students, nor is it conducive to good student relations. The computer department made no effort to inform students of their decision, and conversely tried to cover it up.
WHAT STUDENTS CAN DO ABOUT IT
Whereas DCIT may do a good job of keeping secrets, they do a sorry job of blocking Dialpad. There is a simple click and type process that any student at Clemson can use to get Dialpad back on their browsers as if it had never been blocked. Please visit DownWithDCIT for simple and very detailed instructions on how to do this. Also, take other's advice and mail the President of the University at:
President JAMES F. BARKER,
210 Highland Drive
Clemson, SC 29631
Telephone: (864) 654-6066
Does it really seem so unbelievable that a university would want a monopoly? Of course not!
Universities already have forced monopolies in on-campus housing and on-campus food service in most places (although admittedly this isn't universal), and many universities seem to be pretty intent on keeping them.
Monopolies are great business for the institutions that have them, and I'm sure that Clemson (and most other colleges) would love to keep theirs. In this case, online long-distance probably isn't widely used yet, but if they quash it now while there aren't many people to complain, then it'll be easier than trying to stop everyone from using it a few years from now.
Sheesh I can't believe it. What are we turning into, a mob? Think logically, folks. You don't go to the university. You have no connection to it. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what the IT department has done (read my other post: http://slashdot.org/comme nts.pl?sid=00/01/29/1837209&cid=78). And yet someone says, "Hey, let's spam the President of the school" (albeit through snail mail) and everyone jumps aboard, moderating his points up to 5?!!
This is ridiculous. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
This is completely unconstitutional. Everyone should have a freedom of choice. Entering a dormitory is not the same as entering a prison. Just because university is loosing a contract (which is basically a legalized monopoly) does not mean that it can ban other choices?
I doubt it - if the university chooses to provide one service (web access) but not another (free long-distance phones) you can't really scream that you are being denied a basic right - particularly as free long-distance phones are uncommon in the normal setup.
--
-=DaveHowe=-
Please write the president of Clemson U. and let him know this is just idiotic:
President JAMES F. BARKER,
210 Highland Drive
Clemson, SC 29631
Telephone: (864) 654-6066
Wow, i never dreamed my school would make slashdot. ;)
:)
Seriously, though, this didn't suprise me a whole lot. DCIT is NOT a very userfriendly organization.... They don't allow mp3's on the network, they put in user authorization and track where students surf, they have frequent network downtime, and worst of all they don't listen to the students when we complain about the poor service. I just hope someone there visits slashdot to see the wonderful reputation Clemson is getting because of them....
I don't even use CU's long distance thing, i just call collect anyway.
There is no issue here on constitutionality. What amendment does it break? The 1st? The 4th? It breaks none of these. When you sign a housing contract -- be it with a university, apartment complex, whatever -- you explicitly agree to all the conditions therein. Now, I go to a university (Cal Poly) that is extremely lax in its network usage policies, yet to live on-campus, I still had to sign a contract that said I would abide by them. I suspect all universities have an "unnecessary bandwidth usage" clause that gives them plenty of breathing room. Wake up, folks; This isn't an "outrage", this is business, and while I think that's probably taking it a bit to the extreme, it's perfectly within their right -- and best interest -- to enstate such a policy. Now, having said that, I for one am still glad I live on a campus that gives us T-3 access, Mountain Dew, and long-distance for $.11 a minute.
The article says they banned funphone.com too... of course, funphone.com is a very elaborate joke...
Are you nuts???
Dialpad is accessing the university network on the request of a member of that university. So they aren't freeloading bandwidth any more than a web server that a student accesses. Bytes are bytes.
...except that it's not the real reason, of course. Universities make a great deal of money on the monopolies that they control, and will go to great lengths to protect them.
The sad part about this is that the students are paying to use that bandwidth and internet connection, and they are being told how to use it. Worse yet, most campus facilities don't offer alternatives like DSL or cable modems.
It always enraged me when I had to pay a $100 "lab fee" per computer science course, even though I never set foot in the computing center at school. In fact, I didn't even tie up one of their crappy dialups, instead preferring an outside ISP. Did I have a leg to stand on when I argued that I shouldn't have to pay? No. They simply charged my account. What was I going to do?
Until we make some changes in the whole mentality of higher education in this country, these sorts of examples will prevail. Instead of students serving the Universities, Universities need to serve the needs of the students. Students will continue to be overcharged, underrepresented, bullied, and "processed" through a system which just wants money at every turn.
It's been going on for years. It's high time someone makes use of the collective powers of the Internet to change this.