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Handling Campus AUP (non-)Violations?
speby asks: "I am a CS student at Northern Illinois University and I recently compiled a working peer-to-peer file web-based file indexing system. I refused to sign their agreement that says I violated their Acceptable Use Policy because I sincerely believe I did not violate them. My system scans a large portion of my school's network hosts looking for openly accessible, anonymous Windows File Shares, and bandwidth usage is minimal. The AUP does not mention scans and I did not 'break' or 'crack' security in any way. I agreed to shut the service down for a period of time until I can figure something else out. I do not agree with their stance on this issue and I believe I have a right to design, implement, and make available such a service. I certainly did not see anything in their terms of service that would disallow such a system. Do these other universities that allow this kind of system care? Why can this system not exist here?" I have no problem with a student being told to shut down a homebrew service if they find it offensive, but I do have a problem with them treating said students like criminals, even when they do comply with their wishes. What should students do, when they are bullied by their colleges into signing violations that are more stringent than the situation merits?
"I was contacted by the IT department after a few weeks of its public running. I did not actively promote the system. It works in ways similar to the file search engines like the ones at Iowa State University and Georgia Technical Institute. In terms of programming, this idea is so trivial anyone could do it with the help of some simple scripting and a lightweight database."
That's about the only thing in the AUP that I could see them having a problem with. Perhaps you want to show the ISU and GA search engines to them as an example of what's going on. Also, you might implement a bandwidth throttle. My 2 cents.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
I would just sign the agreement if I were you (although I have no idea what the punishment is going to be if you do). If your network admins aren't bright enough to see what you were doing was a non-intrusive search, you're not going to be able to sweet-talk them into believing you're not "hacking" people's computers.
I wrote/administer the aformentioned search engine, Buzzsearch, at Georgia Tech. I've never had a problem with the network staff - I do everything I can to be a good campus netizen (blocking off campus searching, for example) and they don't acknowledge that I exist. But I'm definitely not doing this for my "ideals", or to "fuck the man", yadda yadda... I sure as hell wouldn't risk my degree for Buzzsearch - if OIT came knocking on my door I'd hand over my server in a second flat.
You're in a bad environment with uncool admins... deal with it and give up. It's not worth possibly fucking up your education.