More on the University of Florida

setzman writes "According to this article, the University of Florida has implemented a software program known as ICARUS (Integrated Control Application for Restricting User Services) to monitor student activities on the campus network. If a user downloads music or videos the system deems to be illegal, they will lose their connection and be punished by being forced to watch industry propaganda, lengthy suspensions of access, or even a written reprimand. Yet the system hasn't resulted in an increase in CD sales? Hmm... Maybe they will figure out another way to improve their failing business model?" We covered this some months ago but the Associated Press is just catching on.

Comments

Business model?

[m00nun1t]

Maybe I'm missing something but I didn't think the University of Florida had a "...failing business model". Maybe they are just doing it so they don't get in trouble? They are a University and it could be argued they are well within their rights to limit their exposure.

Hate to break it to you...

[zelurxunil]

It is the universities internet connection they are providing to students, and is subject to their policies of use. If students want to download illegal content, they have the freedom to attain their own internet connection through some other means.

Re:Hate to break it to you...

[cgranade]

But can they opt out of purchasing access altogether? No... they are a captive audience. They must accept the rules in order to be successful at that or any other college. Since the acceptance of rules is not based in choice, it is a weak acceptance at best. Thus, many people have little qualms in breaking rules that they saw very little chance to complain about.

I'm confused

[kinnell]

Yet the system hasn't resulted in an increase in CD sales? Hmm... Maybe they will figure out another way to improve their failing business model?

Does the University of florida sell CDs? Is the drop in CD sales affecting the sources of income for the University of florida? If not, isn't this a stupid comment? If the RIAA were blackmailing the university into implementing this then I would agree that this is a rights violation, but get real: the University of Florida is perfectly well entitled to take steps to ensure it's network isn't used for illegal purposes, not to mention monitoring the use of it's resources. Yes, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, whether you think this is right or wrong. If you don't like this, go to a different university, or get a private net connection.

Re:The most disturbing thing...

[REBloomfield]

erm... hello??? The University's internet connection is subject to terms of use, just as the one at the .edu where I'm the network admin is. Students want to use it, they sign to say they'll abide by the conditions. And that includes monitoring.

There's no 'loss of privacy'. We don't sit and watch every mouse click you make you know, we do have other things to do as well.

Re:The most disturbing thing...

[cgranade]

To me the most disturbing thing is that "violators" (note the quotes, folks!) are forced to watch **AA FUD/disinfo/propoganda. Since when is it acceptable for a publically owned university to spew off corporate propoganda? And yet, few ppl even blink at it. Sad, folks. Just fucking sad.

How is this bad?

[geirhe]

Network connections at university do not come from a horn of plenty. They cost money. A lot of money. The internet connections are there to help the students learn. All rhetoric aside - Kazaa doesn't teach anyone anything you need to know at a university. Being able to see the cost of using things like Kazaa is, however, a sought-after skill. We need more people like that where I work, at least.

I don't think the other students should have to foot the bill for those who want to use huge amounts of bandwidth. Those who want to swap can get their own, private internet connection.

When a private ISP does this, I will care.

False-positive?

[mcbridematt]

Didn't NPR run an article on this? But NPR's article stated that using P2P AT ALL will trigger the warning.

Thats got me worried.

P2P CAN Be used as a legimate software distribution medium. i.e FreeBSD and some other free software tend to get a lot of hits on my upload queue.

So, if users were getting Linux ISO's over p2p in the university/corporate network, and this software triggers false warnings, who knows what will happen.

Re:The most disturbing thing...

[yiantsbro]

mmmmm...yeah...and law enforcement wouldn't be there if not for my tax dollars. So they should stay the hell out of my business right? Bother those who do not pay taxes.

I understand your direction, but just because student tuition (might) account for the bulk of the yearly budget (it is about 65% at our University) doesn't simply buy their freedom.

Re:The most disturbing thing...

[lonb]

I think the significant point that you are missing is that the Internet connection at Universities is NOT just for academics and research. For most students university is their whole life for several years, but especially the first year: when they LIVE on campus, EAT on campus, often WORK on campus. In the 12/1 issue of "BusinessWeek" statistics from The College Board show that the average costs of attending private colleges in 2004 will have risen to close to $50k/year -- state unis are probably not far behind.

It is ridiculous to believe that a student, who pays a fortune, and makes that university their life, does not have the right to use the Internet connection HOWEVER they feel, as long as it is not illegal. And, frankly, I do not believe it should be the universities job to monitor their usage in anyway (other than to maintain the stability of the network, or maybe for pure research) or to restrict their usage even if to maintain legality.

Let the law do the law's work.

And, to finish my rant, let me also say: The more restriction university's put on their students, the less creativity we will see. What would have happened to the Internet had Stanford stopped Yahoo's traffic because it damaged the 'network and was an unsupervised host on the network.