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Congress Asks Universities To Enforce Copyrights

Posted by chrisd on from the college-adminstrators-as-cops dept.

Wes Felter writes "In CNet, Declan McCullagh writes that members of Congress are concerned that universities are not enforcing the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act which made simple copyright violations into a federal crime. Should universities be responsible for tracking down illegal sharing on their networks? Will ISPs be next?"

25 of 450 comments (clear)

  1. leave them alone by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Universities have enough to deal with concerning their students, before they start wasting their money policing filesharing.

    Just let them teach the classes. Let the students worry about the law.(or lack thereof)

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
    Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
    1. Re:leave them alone by ratamacue · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agreee. If the law cannot be enforced without coercing private organizations into becoming arms of government, than the law is not just in the first place.

    2. Re:leave them alone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm a system administrator at a medium-sized state University. If my superiors were to tell me to start policing file sharing, I'd probably have no time left to actually maintain and improve the systems, as well as moral issues with violating user privacy.

      We very quickly nail people who are sucking down ridiculous amounts of bandwidth sharing files, simply because they are slowing down the network connection for everyone else. However, we specifically make a point not to police traffic based on its content. Respecting students' privacy it utmost in our philosophy.

      Hopefully I won't be getting orders on high to start inspecting traffic for media sharing. It's something that I, as a sysadmin, would really hate to do. Law enforcement is the job of the police, not sys-admins.

      -Z

    3. Re:leave them alone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      "Universities at large are not private organizations. Most are state run. Therefore, if they want to continue recieving federal aid(which they do), they should get in gear and stop the lawbreaking."

      What an amazingly weak argument! Is _everyone_ supposed to be an arm of the law. People receiving unemployment benefits, people on welfare, people who drive on the interstate roads, people with federally-backed home loans and bank accounts, and on and on, all should become the enforcers of copyright violations by others? Perhaps you should rethink your position.

    4. Re:leave them alone by tuxedo-steve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think that fact that a law is unenforcable by reasonable means necessarily implies that the law itself is unjust. It is only the actions taken by those attempting to enforce the law that are unjust.

      It could be said that a law that can only be enforced effectively through unjust means is inherently unjust itself, which I think is what you are saying. I don't think that this is the case: people do (and should) obey laws on an "honour system" basis, not just because there's a threat of punishment!

      The justness of a law hangs on a lot more than enforcability.

      --
      - SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
    5. Re:leave them alone by Didion+Sprague · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not sure why filesharing is any more of a problem on a university campus than, say, underage drinking or drug use. Universities do their best to deal with drug use, do their best to combat underrage drinking, but I don't see congress asking universities to do *more* than what's currently being done.

      Where's the Jack Valenti drug czar appealing to congress to close down potential "drug dens" on campuses? Where's the Hilary Rosen rape and violent assault czar lobbying congress to force all students to cease and desist from such behavior or face ten, twenty, fifty years in prison? Where's the outrage about heroin use on college campuses?

      All of which is to say: the laws are there, most folks are aware of the laws, universites make a good faith effort to enforce the laws. But I cannot in good conscience understand why filesharing -- filesharing! -- seems to be more important than preventing drug use, alcohol abuse, or violence on college campuses.

      Actually, I do understand. The answer is money. Corporations have such sway in American government and have the money to back up their big mouths that they've managed to convince to big-business suits in congress that sharing an MP3 is more vital than preventing rape.

      If those legal fucks spending money on filesharing initiatives would put *half* that money -- even a *tenth* of that money -- into rape and violence awareness programs on American college campuses then the quality of life would be immeasurably improved.

    6. Re:leave them alone by sweetooth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Grants? Ha ha. That's rich.

      They'll just raise tuition again to cover the costs. That's what they do around here. Tuition goes up damn near EVERY semester for some reason or another. The quality of the education sure isn't improving so it must be going to something important such as a program for reducing file sharing on the university network.

    7. Re:leave them alone by ichimunki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Thank you for using the words "steal" and "theft" instead of the technically correct "unauthorized duplication". Information is a non-rivalous resource and except in the case of trade secrets cannot be "stolen" in any traditional sense of the word "stolen". Your choice to use inflammatory and misleading language simply makes this a more difficult discussion to have because you are simply appealing to emotion rather than making sound arguments.

      This *is* about civil liberties because it has a chilling effect among other things. The unauthorized duplication has been and continues to be used to prevent legitimate filesharing on otherwise neutral systems (i.e. Napster). This is like closing down all the roads in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas because some persons are using them to transport drugs from Mexico to the United States.

      --
      I do not have a signature
  2. Yes, but... by theeds · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At my school off campus trading is something that's been actively looked down upon... however trading over the campus network is encouraged... I think if anything is going to happen a standard needs to be found first.

  3. Responsibility? by B5_geek · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Why is there always an assumption of guilt when dealing with file sharing?
    This type of draconian heavy-handed measure is an insult. Why is the burben of proof on the individual and not the government?

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
  4. A sense of proportion? by Hittite+Creosote · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "If on your campus you had an assault and battery or a murder, you'd go down to the district attorney's office and deal with it that way," said Rep. William Jenkins, R-Tenn.

    Either someone is taking the mickey, or this politician really needs to get a sense of proportion.

  5. University Responsibility for Adults by Cognito · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Educational institutions are no more responsible for student file swapping than they are for student drinking and driving. "Loco parentis" is NOT the responsibility of educational institutions, thoght many folks think they are and should be, including the university administrative class known as "Diaper Deans"

    Students are adults and responsible for their own behavior.

  6. Copyright breach not an offence by saphena · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The NET Act asserts criminality in the event of deliberate money making or valuable materials copying as opposed to simple breach of copyright.
    Is Congress asserting that universities are overlooking that or merely that copyright breaches are possible and not investigated?

  7. Universities??!! by Noryungi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait a minute...

    If they think that ".edu" network admins (who are often students themselves) will enforce stupid RIAA rules, they are, in effect, asking the foxes to guard the henhouse!

    Seriously, I remember, at my old university [no names given, for obvious reasons] that the admins used to have close to 50+GB of mp3s archive... =)

    This being said, this has also been the case in the past 3 companies I work with... Maybe this is the solution to piracy: ask that kind of admins to take care of the piracy problem... then, turn around and pretend the problem has been solved! Case closed! =)

    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  8. ISPs will be next, and be libel by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once they are forced to monitor, they will be legally accountable for any 'leaks' or 'actions' they don't catch. As well as the end user of course.

    Its a dangerous thing to hold accountable 'carriers' of content that flows across them..

    Whets next, the phone company? The US Postal service? FedEx? A gun store? Wal-Mart?

    How about AMEX when someone uses a purchase for illegal activities...

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  9. Just to be safe... by shoppa · · Score: 5, Insightful
    For the administration or IT department to enforce "no digital copying of copyright materials" is difficult, because it's not always clear what is copyright and what isn't. That *.mp3 file might be a music student's solo performance in a Beethoven - or it might be the latest hit tune from Sony or other RIAA memory. That text file might be a term paper - or it might be instructions on how to install DeCSS. That *.jpg picture might be an art project - or it could be a frame from some pirated movie. That *.c file might be source code for a first-year programming class - or it might be ripped off from Microsoft's driver database.

    Just to be safe, college administrations have to assume that all files are copyright by Hollywood and the RIAA. No original work should be done on college campuses. It's just too risky - when big business, backed by jackbooted government thugs, will question every file that every student has. Instead, colleges should buy all course materials straight from Hollywood and the RIAA, with (of course) Digital Rights Management software on every computer giving big business the right to monitor everything that goes on.

  10. quick answer... by REBloomfield · · Score: 5, Insightful
    yes, they should be clamping down.

    As an edu admin myself, I have a repsonsibility for the content of my networks, which includes those nodes attached to them.

    The same way that i am liable for illegal use of unlicensed software, not the premises. (Bizarre, and a pain, hence why I'm a tad zealous...)

  11. Fight language FUD!! by arvindn · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Absolutely.

    This is a serious issue. We are not talking about a single misguided politician here. This is the result of an insidious, deliberate, and concerted effort by the *AA to abuse language in order to confuse people's sense of proportion and their sense of ethics. False analogies, shock-treatment and abuse of language are very effective propaganda tools, and that is what we are seeing here.

    See what RMS has to say (from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html) :

    Publishers often refer to prohibited copying as ``piracy.'' In this way, they imply that illegal copying is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnaping and murdering the people on them.

    If you don't believe that illegal copying is just like kidnaping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word ``piracy'' to describe it. Neutral terms such as ``prohibited copying'' or ``unauthorized copying'' are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer to use a positive term such as ``sharing information with your neighbor.''

    Fight this language FUD! Refuse to use FUD terms. Read the above mentioned article on gnu.org and point people to it. It can go a long way in putting things in true perspective and controlling the power of the *AA.

  12. Ludicrous by wfrp01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So university administrators should be held reponsible for the actions of their clients? Among other things, remember, students are not (typically) employees.

    If this flies, then I think members of Congress should also be held personally responsible for any and all undesireable actions taken by any resident of the United States. Obviously they could be doing more to prevent criminal behaviour. Because they are not, because criminals still roam the streets, they should be held liable.

    Can anyone point to a good place to read more about all the idiot ideas floating around in Congress? I'd like to get a better handle on who the real bozos are who float this kind of stupid shit.

    --

    --Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
  13. Re:Maybe by GammaTau · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybethe university administrators have more important things to do (like, say, running a university) than hunting down students dling mp3's.

    Recently there was a story about spammers using students as relays. If it was up to me, I'd say that the university administrators should spend time hunting the spammers.

    The biggest problem, from the perspective of law, is that no one but very few people care about illegal filesharing. If I start sharing files illegally from my home computer, it's not like anyone would care (with the exception of a few companies the media giants fund). If I started sending spam, I'd be having hard time trying to keep my connection to the net because there are people who would immediately try to trace and report my actions. Illegal filesharing is not frowned upon like most other crimes are. That's a fundamental problem that all the anti-p2p measures have failed to address. If they are serious about fighting illegal filesharing, they need to get the support of netizens and so far "they" have done nothing but stomp on our rights and values.

  14. Real Laws are being broken by zerus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are murders, rapists, and other offenders of such unspeakable crimes walking the streets in our country, yet a college student downloading "Margarita Ville" is a criminal that deserves to be arrested for breaking a copyright law. What the hell is going through congress' minds? We have a budget crisis enough as it is and we can't even rid our streets of homeless people but we'll spend millions of dollars protecting an already overly-wealthy industry from an 18 year old kid that just wants to listen to a song? Where are the priorities in this country?

  15. Re:Why not? by Dr.Enormous · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, my college only had a statement that basically said "don't commit fraud or hack anything using our resources".

    However, having a policy against something is not at all related to actively monitoring it. If you rent an apartment from me and the lease says "no dragging a keg inside and trashing the place", surely you'll agree that it's not my job (nor should it be) to install video cameras in the living room just to be sure. The same thing is true here: they can tell you not to share copyrighted files, but that shouldn't imply a responsibility to go through your shared files and determine which are copyright violations.

    Which is not to say it won't be their responsibility by the time the lawyers are done with them...

  16. Moral outrage because law-breaking is bad? by EnlightenmentFan · · Score: 3, Insightful
    An impressive display of moral outrage--but--

    Why are they screaming about P2P? What about radar detectors? Radar detectors are there to help drivers break laws--they have no other purpose. Breaking the speed-limit laws makes a driver much more likely to kill someone.

    Unfortunately, people killed by speeding drivers don't make campaign contributions. File-sharing hasn't caused any deaths that I know about...

    --
    Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
  17. University Experience by EPossum · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Speaking from having been there as an admin -- The suggestion that Universities should aggressively police themselves is idiotic. The official "unofficial" policy was and is don't look - don't tell. The second that you say that you will police the network and something slips by is the second that you become liable.
    At the university that I worked for the tech to person ratio was around 1 to 120 computers. At the time the tech was required to also keep several different servers running. In a college of about 500-600 computers we had 5 techs full time. We were required to manage Novell, NT, Unix servers, handle web page creation for classes, and early on handle student accounts (later taken away due to a central control issue at the university).
    Student web pages were particularly questioned -
    • pornographic content
    • selling things on university equipment
    • copyrighted materials
    • etc....
    Had I aggressively policed that then servers would have been down, labs would'nt have worked, professors couldn't have done their work, you name it and from the dean's office it would have looked like one of the techs was just sitting in his/her office doing nothing all day long.
    It has gotten better there btw. In addition to the 5 techs they now have 2 people whose sole job is to take care of servers (and figure out how to distribute/manage licensed software, and email complaints, and viruses, and step in and do regular tech stuff, and fix the occasional home users computer, etc)
    At the university level they throttled the bandwidth for those services down to a crawl - still workks just too slow to be usefull
    If they aren't aggressively policing their networks its because they kind of have their plates full.
    I highly suggest working for the tech department of any college/university even part time - they are almost always hiring and almost always need the help- great and diverse tech education!
  18. Its not. by tkrotchko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    " I'm not sure why filesharing is any more of a problem on a university campus than, say, underage drinking or drug use."

    Its not any worse, its not really a problem except that it affects serious money interests.

    Love Stallman or hate him, but his rant on copyrights that he did a decade ago is so on the mark that its scary.

    Copyrights as they exist today can't be enforced in a connected age unless the government places serious roadblocks to a free society.

    A copyright or patent is a bargain between society and the creator. It is not an inherent right as many seem to think.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you