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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.
Wow. That is a name I want to base my business on.... We will have to see what the sun does to the wax that holds those wings together....
I wonder if this is one more sign of a doomed music industry. How long until they fall into the sea?
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... even more than the loss of student's privacy, is the fact that other universities have approached these people about buying this ICARUS program.
I'm all for respecting the copyright, but that doesn't extend to censoring my computer. It sounds a little shady to me. What they may end up doing is forcing students to add internet connectivity options to the college-selection process, which is a shame.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
Let me tell you first hand that this is one sneaky system. I lived in the dorms over the summer when it was implemented and they didn't even inform the students. All of the sudden my connection was just off. I wasn't downloading ANYTHING, I just had kazaa open in the background (not sharing any files).
I am one of the proud 100 students caught twice mentioned in that article. Now I have my own house off-campus with cable modem service. Hell, it beats using a proxy to destroy ICARUS (it isn't smart enough to monitor packet contents, just destination). Thank God I'm transferring to University of Michigan.
And presumably those students will be refunded the amount they've paid for Internet access in their fees, if they're not provided with that access?
No, didn't think so.
It would be interesting to see if sales of CDR and DVDRs went up.
Also, what is to stop an informal, peer to peer wireless service starting up?
All the authorities probably want is to not be liable to the RIAA. They don't care whether you download songs or not, they just don't want the RIAA knocking at their door. They are also picking up the tab for all that bandwidth as well.
They probably realise that their students will get round it anyway, or if they don't, it doesn't say much for the ingenuity of UF students.
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
A question ..
Is there any first-hand accounts on how this system works?
For example, how it moniter the traffic? The wired article seems to imply that it scans the students' computers which I am not sure I would be too pleased about if it were mine. Also, on what basis does it say that the file being shared is questionable? For example, if I had a file called Metallica.mp3 which does not contain Metallica-copyrighted material, is that deemed ``questionable''? Or perhaps, what if I decided to share legitimate material on Kazaa, such as Linux ISOs? Would I get booked if I did that?
What are the procedures for getting booked? What if I was wrongly accused of downloading or uploading ``questionable'' material?
Thanks.
The only people profiting from the RIAA Shenanigans seems to be software companies that are designing anit copyright infringement technologies.
I only download stuff I would have never bought in the first place, or stuff I Can't buy because it hasn't had a UK release. Not allowingme to download these files doesn't make me buy the CD's or DVD's I just find something else to do.
This is not "censorship", nor is it an "invasion of privacy", nor is it some nefarious RIAA plot.* The University of Florida has the right to set terms of use for its network hardware and bandwidth, and if it decides that it doesn't want said hardware and bandwidth to be used for an activity whose moral status is debatable but whose legal status is quite clear, well, that's none of our business, is it?
So quit whining already.
* I would like to see if UF received any major contributions from the RIAA or one of its members, though -- follow the money and all that.
I might not agree with what the university is doing, but in this case the university can differentiate between the private property (the computer) and the public property (the bandwidth). Note I didn't say I agree with them but at least they are making this separation to the students.
However, one thing I think the University is doing that they need to be VERY CONCERNED with for themselves (and not the students) is that they are now EDITORIALIZING. In other words, they are now saying they have looked at the content and this makes them RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. As soon as you do this, you are legally in a much worse position than you were before.
A bookstore that claims that it has reviewed the titles on its shelves is in a worse position than one that hasn't. It cannot now claim that it didn't know that there was lewd material in one of its books.
This is dangerous because once the law considers it the norm for a university to monitor its bandwidth usage (and not just the amount of bandwidth but the content), they are now open to litigation much more easily. In the end, it is possible that universities might just have to forego much of their Internet access to protect themselves legally. A lose-lose situation for everyone.
Sunny
Be my Friend
You may recall Icarus as the son of Daedalus. Daedalus was an early technological innovator, who developed wings to allow himself and his son to escape the prison they were confined in by King Minos. Minos was angry that Daedalus had given a citizen the key to the maze that Minos had required Daedalus to build for Minos' benefit. Unfortunately, Icarus tried to exploit his father's wing technology incautiously, thus bringing destruction on himself and grief and guilt to his father.
Not that there's a modern metaphor there anywhere...okay, maybe. Key:
- Daedalus = the
/. crowd
- Icarus = the general computer-using public
- wings = peer-to-peer networking
- prison = DMCA
- King Minos = RIAA/MPAA etc.
- key = DeCSS etc.
- maze = copy prevention
- incautiously = without adequate anonymity
- destruction = massive lawsuits, etc.
But you knew this...I suspect that this has very little to do with wanting to keep illegal content off the network, and almost everything to do with not wanting to deal with the administrative load of DMCA takedown notices. Network admins for a large university have much better things to do with their time than file/track/answer notifications w/r/t music that their students are sharing on well-known-and-trackable p2p networks.
The goal is noble, it's just not the one that the RIAA would like to trumpet.
as its only the students complaining that they cannot use kazaa etc, bravo to the UNI for implementing a system that actually works maybe some honest research with all that spare bandwidth can now be performed
of course if the students want full, filter free connections they wont mind being an adult and paying the full price for an OC3 to their residence just like any citizen in a community would.
You can joke, but my workplace denies access to yro.slashdot.org but not slashdot.org.
I never know how to think about this sort of stuff anymore. On one hand they are breaking the law (no matter how unjustified it may seem) and it is the Universities network. I seem to remember many Uni's whining about how much bandwidth they were having to provide then finding out 80% of it was used to download music, pr0n and warez.
I mean, if you walk into a shop and steal CDs... we all know what will happen.
On the other hand, this whole music model with the RIAA (and similar organisations outside the US) sucking us dry has got to die.
So, it the downloading of music a form of protest or free speech, or is it simply breaking the laws of the land?
With all benefits of ICARUS aside, can't it be circumvented with something like Waste?
There is a third solution, charge the students the wholesale (what you pay for it) cost of the bandwidth. The tech fee pays for the baseline tech expenses, and bandwidth is payed via a usage fee.
Although scanning for and blocking viruses might be nice, I do believe it violates the "common carrier" clause of the DMCA, and if you don't scan for viruses (as well as any other scanning), you wouldn't be liable anyway for copyright infringement of your users.
Hmm... Maybe they will figure out another way to improve their failing business model?
A few weeks ago, we held a forum on "Net Piracy" here at my school of Texas A&M. It wasn't really a forum, with the connotation of public discussion, but more of a presentation by the speakers. Attending were a local professor of communications, an author of a book on the subject, an MPAA vice president, and US Representative John Carter. They gave some very good speeches and then answered some presubmitted questions.
I was a pretty frustrated that I was not going to get a chance to ask a question. I had some very good ones! Then someone from the audience said something about originality, interrupting one of the speakers. The moderator asked him to clarify, and this guy in the audience launched into a diatribe about how formulaic are all the current movies and music, and how people would be more willing to pay money for it if it was more original.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
There were a lot of things that needed to be said at that forum. The US Representative was using "steal" and "pirate" as if they meant the same thing as "download" and "share." This guy is making our country's laws based on a powerful, industry-sponsored misconception. Why the hell would someone bring up this originality bullshit? That's something you complain about with your buddies. It's not something you use as justification for copyright violations before a member of the United States House of Representatives. Way to give us all a bad name, idiot.
This "failing business model" crap is just one more example of the same problem. You can sit around with your friends (or on Slashdot, if that is your only friend) and talk about how weak RIAA's and MPAA's business model is, but you don't use that as justification for breaking it.
I think the ideal would look a lot like iTunes, with all music, movies, and TV shows available for download at a low price. That would be great for everyone. The people who produce it get paid, the people who want it get it whenever they want. Guess what? That business model has a lot of potential to fail. People will download the stuff, crack its encryption, and share it. There's nothing wrong with the business model, it's the assholes you see all around you that don't follow the rules.
I resent the whining camera prop commercial they play before movies as much as the next guy, and Britney Spears spews nothing but bullshit, but seriously, they really do need to get paid. Actors get paid too much (by my standards), and music labels don't compensate musicians well, but they REALLY DO NEED TO GET PAID. There's no justification here for downloading music and movies you should be paying for. If you don't want to buy it, you don't get it. Life goes on.
I mean, if you have to take some sort of Copyright ethics class, personally I'd love to get busted and be forced to take that, just to point out exactly what is wrong with it.
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