BitTorrent Inherently Illegal?

Nohbdy001 asks: "Today I received a letter from my university's network administration advising me that my network access would be terminated due to 'illegal P2P activity.' The P2P activity that the e-mail cited was BitTorrent and the file being transferred was an update to the Azureus BitTorrent client. The letter stated, 'Until the courts decide that student P2P activity is permitted we will continue to block this activity on our network,' implying that BitTorrent is inherently illegal. It seems such misunderstandings are common, but it is particularly frustrating when coming from people in the IT field. How can a student respond to such an accusation in order to defend the validity of BitTorrent and continue to benefit from its legitimate uses?"

Comments

Legal Precedent

[NorbMan]

There is already legal precedent that P2P file sharing technology in itself is indeed legal. The Federal Appeals court that ruled was talking about networks like Morpheus and Grokster, but I would think the precedent set also applies to Bittorrent.

Here's a quote from a news story back in August:

"History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player," Thomas wrote. "Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude."

You have no real alternative

[Hanashi]

As long as you're using the school's network, you have to abide by the school's policies. If they ask you not to do it, you pretty much have to comply if you want to keep your net connection.

Still, it's probably worth a polite note to the network administrator to request "clarification". State your case concisely (they're usually busy) and politely, and you may get lucky.

Talk to your Ombudsman!

[bakaorg]

Many univeristies have an Ombudsman, whose job it is to talk advocate for those trapped in meaningless rules which do not or should not apply.

Student Governments

[EconomyGuy]

While not the most popular approach among Slashdoters, I highly recommend talking with your student government. Having served in one for way to long, I can tell you that most of them are just waiting for the perfect issue to come by to fight the Administration on. Network censorship is an easy issue to understand and they are obviously overreaching in their interpretations of "the Law."

The other important question is whether this is a state or private school. One poster said you had no recourse because it was "their network"... but such is not the case is if this is a state school. There may be certain laws that protect fair access. Again your student government can be a valuable source of information in this area.

-Sean

Re:You are fighting the University's lawyers.

[secolactico]

Indeed. And I'll add, "their network, their rules".

But it can be challenged. Are you paying for net access? Is it included in the cost of whatever it is they charge you for your education?

Read their TOS. Find legal precedent where it says that p2p is not illegal. Collect signatures. Petition, campaign, etc.

Sounds like too much work? If you are not up to it then I advise you to get another ISP (and read the TOS before you sign).

If you decide to "walk around" their filters (tunneling, etc), don't complain later on if they somehow bust you. If you decide to simply ignore their warning and BT files anyway, notify them of your reasons for this. In writing. This way you get an air of legitimacy.

WARNING: The above is not legal advice and I'm not a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer and be prepared to walk into whatever situation you choose with your eyes wide open. You might not be doing anything illegal, but that's never stopped anybody from suing anyway.

Re:It's unfortunate

[Ioldanach]

they should start a collection among similarly concerned students and retain a lawyer.

Chances are, the college has some form of student union, and student unions typically have access to legal counsel for when students get in trouble. I think this would qualify.

Re:It's unfortunate

[Rei]

I just read over every word of the IT license at the university where I work (which I'd take to be a pretty standard IT license), and nothing in there would allow them to do what happened to this student, and certainly is not a situation where one can "remove access to whatever they want whenever they want". The license requires the university to have a justification; there are a number of potential justifications, but none of them are "because we feel like it".

Given my university's license, about the closest argument that they could make would be "excessive personal use", but even that falls pretty flat on its face, given the letter that the student was sent and the actions that they were taking (downloading a software update) that led to the ban. They certainly weren't doing anything that would fall under violation of local, state, or federal laws; they weren't attempting to disrupt the network; they weren't attempting to invade anyone's privacy; etc. The student didn't fall under any category listed.