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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."
I don't know enough about how much trouble you're facing or what options you have, but you've violated Acceptable use of NIU information technology resources is based on common sense, common decency, and civility applied to the networked computing environment. and probably All authorized users have the right to expect reasonable privacy with regard to all computer files and e-mail.
More importantly...
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.
OK, now this is where you're being a dumbass. There are going to be plenty of idiots here telling you to keep sticking it to The Man. If you're smart, you'll do what Kevin Mitnick and Randal Schwartz wouldn't -- stop when you've been told to stop.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
You have to understand. College is Club Med for young people. You all are the customers. And what you all are buying can all be got for free at any good public library.
Colleges make up for this by providing all sorts of 'perks' that don't have anything to do with the service they are providing. Sports facillities, money for student associations and clubs, and a fat connection as well. They charge for these by tuition. It's a lump sum, so you can't opt-out of anything.
Since corporations are too badly mis-run to actually do real screening for ability in applicants, you need a bit of college. It's not such a bad place. Unfortunately, there are too many youngsters who are used to the authority of their parents and high school teachers. They don't understand the customer--business relationship. And college administrations take advantage of it.
So here's the solution. Like any badly run buearacracy, the college administration will fold, give in to your demands, and bend over for you, if you give them enough grief. Don't do anything that they can kick you out for, but give them a truck-load of pain through all the official channels possible. And if you run out of official channels, make some up. Don't give up until they give you a new car and a Phd as a settlement agreement.
If you are thinking of modding this funny--don't. It's all true.
This sounds like the basic child-raising dilema. You tell you kid what he can't do, he goes ahead and does something similar, but technically not the same. You find out about it and confront him, he says "but I didn't do that" and you say "you know what I mean" and smack him. You should have known that snooping around for Windows shares would get you in trouble sooner or later. Tell them that you didn't violate their agreement, offer to write up what you did so they can modify the agreement and promise not to do it again.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Dear Slashdot,
I am a college student.
Several time a week, I walk into every office building and college dorm and attempt to open every door to see if the door is unlocked, and to see if something is inside. If the door is open, I walk in, take a picture, and catalog my findings in an MySQL database.
I don't think this is unethical, but the school admins don't like this.
I don't like being treated as a criminal. What do I do?
It's pretty obvious as to what his program was designed to do. That is, scan for windows boxes ran by not-so-smart users that didn't password protect their shares, and for him to snoop in on them.
./ community to gain support.
He got caught, now he's going the rightous route to either justify what he is doing or pray on the general additude of the
Give me a break.
He got caught, get over it Cliff, "Being treated like criminals", my god, cry me a river.
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
"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." Sorry pal, but not until you buy the bandwidth, the cable, the servers and the big Cisco box do you have the right. It's their network and they make the rules, even if it is make-it-up-as-you-go-along. Shut down your server, say you're sorry, get your degree, earn lots of money and buy your own network. Then you'll have the right to tell people what services they can run.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
It sounds like you don't have a full understanding of why they are upset with the system. It could be misperception or that you're causing a problem without realizing.
I would try to work (in person) with whomever contacted you, and try to understand why this makes their life difficult, and try to address though concerns.
Without knowing why they are upset, there is little anyone on Slashdot can do to help you.
-Bill
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
When my friend was in residence (I was in my own house at the time), I helped him build a system very similar to the one you're describing. Exactly the same thing happened. IST found out about it, and shut it down. The reason they gave was that it was eating up internal bandwidth. When he inquired how his search system was eating up so much bandwidth, they told him it wasn't the search that was eating up bacndwidth, but the fact that everyone started getting files from other people's Windows Shares all the time. Now these aren't smart users either. They'd play files directly form others' HD's, without getting a local copy first.
Bottom line is, you may think you have some kind of right to do something like this, but the service is ultimately there for educational purposes. If you can convince them that you're using the search for educational purposes, you're in the clear. Otherwise, you're probably not going to get away with this one. Searching computers for random files, not related to your education, is not acceptable use, I'm sorry to say.
"Free beer tends to lead to free speech"
Since when do you have to have permission to browse public windows shares? The entire point of having them public (i.e., no password), is so you can do it with OUT permission. Sharing files publicly is the same thing as running a web server: anyone is able to access it, and they don't have to ask your permission to do so.
...but, would your opinion about the scanning change if Microsoft was doing it? Or the college itself?
The shares are open to the network but they are not legally open to people. I left my back door open this evening when I took out the trash, but that doesn't give you a right to enter my house through that open door and rifle through my unlocked desk drawers.
Can you or anyone cite a legal precedent that states someone who has open shares on a PC in their possession retains no right to the privacy of those shares, and that that data on those shares is legally accessible by anyone who can get to it?
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Create and test your own software on an isolated network and stop using the public network for your experiments. If this is a research project, then you should be able to make a proposal and get access to such a testing environment.
If you had previously received written permission from an instructor or other university employee, then you could refer the matter to that employee. Since you proceeded to use the university's network for you own testing, you've already crossed the line and they're already suspicious of you.
Imagine it this way, if you went around to people's houses and checked for unlocked doors and then attempted to inventory the furniture in those houses, do you think the police would be forgiving?
Your computer was scanning other computers (without authorization) and probably setting off intrustion detection systems. There is nothing to differenticate your scan from any other hacking attempt, so the university's computer support staff must assume that you are trying to crack into their systems and take appropriate action.
One other thing, you will find that one of the primary concerns of any university is staying out of legal hassles whenever possible. If you do anything that could in any way possibly get them into any legal trouble, you'll end up getting shut down.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
It's the college's private network, not his. He uses the network because the college grants him the privilege. They can withdraw that privilege. He has no "right" to use it.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Excessive data storage shouldn't be a problem; this is an SMB lan where everyone has there own computers and storage, not one user taking up all of the scratch space on NIUVAX or the university UNIX box.
Further, about the network bandwidth: what is the difference between his program doing this, and sitting up all night surfing the LAN? Before the WWW took off, my floormates and myself spent many a late night running through fellow student's computers looking for pron, .wav's, text files... anything interesting. File sizes were seldom the more than half a megabyte, but it was also on thinnet coax, and I'm sure bandwidth was much less than even 10mb/s.