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Ohio University Leads U.S. Colleges in File Sharing
An anonymous reader writes "The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio University leads the nation in illegal music download notifications, having received 1,287 RIAA complaints since September, with between ten and 15 notices arriving daily. The University is attempting to deflect criticism with a PR piece, saying open networks required for academic freedom make it difficult to stop illegal file sharing. They also point out that the University's architecture makes it much easier to determine who is actually sharing the files. This makes a complaint more likely, as the RIAA knows who to target. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_US_un iversities_by_enrollment
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html
We take the heat for the good of all pirates! OU is also one of the top party schools in the country. Yes it's awesome.
I like basketball!!1!
So that's what these kids are so happy about.
Wrong school. The Ohio State University is in Columbus. Ohio University is in Athens (southern Ohio)
Scratch that. Ohio State has the most. Ohio only has 25,000 which is about average for a stat university.
Are reporters even able to divide nowadays?
They said I didn't have to be good at math to be a journalist!
Ohio University teams are the Bobcats, not the Buckeyes (those are "THE" Ohio State University teams).
At least the reporters are able to tell the difference between OU and OSU, unlike certain Slashdot-posting idiots I could mention.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html
As a student at Northern Illinois, I am pleased to announce that we are number 13 on the list. I also find it very interesting that Purdue takes a "Eh, it's to much work to care" stance: "Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints. Others don't. Purdue, which has received 1,068 complaints so far this year but only 37 in 2006, said it rarely notifies students accused by the RIAA because it's too much trouble to find alleged offenders." Its to bad that most schools instead take the stance that if you even have something shared you are as guilty as cheaters.
Hey, every school should have a good role model like this.
If Bush wants to kill the terrorists, he should jump off a cliff.
Ohio State has by far more file traders than Ohio University, the network just hides identities better, etc. Ohio U is dinky compared to OSU, and having graduated from OSU, I can tell you for a fact that no school has the internet traffic of OSU. I heard as an undergrad that the campus connections alone, not including the dorms,etc. but just the campus buildings, were pulling a constant 50-60 megs.
stuff |
Anyone who knows OU's reputation would not find this surprising at all. You have to have good music for all of those parties.
Wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_University -- enrollment 28,804 Ohio Sate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_state Not the same.
They're not the university with the most file sharers...they're the university with the most file sharers WHO GOT CAUGHT. The smart thing to do is ensure that most file sharing is within the university, not with outside sources, to minimize exposure to the ??AA. If you're getting caught, you're doing it wrong.
That's The Ohio State University!
While the MAFIAA would like to rewind time before the Internet, people generally have the desire to share information freely.
Kid: how come we stopped singing happy birthday?
Mom: because Time-Warner "owns" the rights to that, and we don't want to get on the MAFIAA hit list. The cost is far greater than a usual birthday celebration. And, whats wrong with "Good birthday to you"?
Kid: why is the sky blue
Dad: you know, many natural processes can now be patented, copyrighted and generally "owned". My company, SkyTech is patenting that atmospheric prism effect, so I cannot discuss that without revealing trade secrets, and ongoing patented research. Ask your mother.
But only if it were OSU. Then we could prepare for UF to dominate university file sharing in a couple months.
Well you have to be best at something.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Whoops! Now you'll get a +5 for setting me straight!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Download the stuff off-campus and then send it to your on-campus site over a secured connection.
Firewall that site so only on-campus addresses can access it. If you want to, make it invitation only. Just remember to encrypt the transmissions.
There, now no one off-campus can tell that you're doing anything at all on-campus.
I'm thankful that at least in Canada they concider that downloading mp3s is a common thing for everyone and it has been already proven that downloading mp3s stimulates sales.. people get to know new artists they never heard before and they get noticed out of the way.. For example: Astral Projection
I can agree that downloading movies can kill sales... cuz when u see a movie once, rarely you will want to watch it again.. so ok i can understand the point of view from movie makers where they agree they are loosing sales when their newest movie is released online..
But still: it non sence to put charges over people who likes music.
Here in Canada, we understand that this revolution of music sharing is far from killing the music industry, but rather redefining the ways that music gets packaged and sold.
PS: all of you students, move to Canada!! :D U'll be able to download and not having to worry about people who's pissed at what you're enjoying with your ears. ;)
My alma mater is third in RIAA notices; after so many years of football dominance, it's nice to be in the top 5 of something again. Like Ohio University, the campus network at UNL makes it relatively easy to associate people with IPs.
(On a related note, the 100-person computer science/business honors program I was in was, at one time, using something in the area of 25% of the student housing network bandwidth; note that this particular network has about 5,000 users.)
So... with OU students benefiting so much from all this Academic Freedom, they must lead U.S. Colleges in academic excellence too, right?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
enough people have covered the error in that, but OU is usually one of the more consistantly ranked schools at the top of the #1 school to party at, get drunk at, and get knocked up on accident at, if I remember correctly.
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
Cuz im going back to college !!!
Seriously though, must be a nice, liberty-loving place.
Read radical news here
The article is talking about Ohio University, not Ohio State University. I'm a student at OU and it's amazing how lax the network security is here. Absolutely nothing is blocked here, file sharing or otherwise. I know quite a few people that have gotten in trouble for file sharing but they've only gotten referred to the university officials, not the RIAA. Not that computer security is highly regarded here at all, considering that hackers recently got their hands on a list of the entire student body's social security numbers. Network security is definitely not a forte here. I doubt the school officials value "sharing information" as much as they're just lazy about their underfunded security. Not that I'm complaining... :-)
The quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Something is going on, and I'm going to find out what it is.
I'm going to catch this kid and put a dent in his future.
Years from now, when he looks back
on the ruin his life has become...
he will remember Edward Rooney (err, RIAA).
Why is that? Do statisticians prefer large schools so that they can improve their sample sizes?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?Ar ticleID=6876
Wrong University. Ohio University != THE Ohio State University.
The Bobcats (OU) only wish they were as awesome as Buckeyes (OSU).
HAHAHA, so Florida will actually be playing OU, who is in a lower ranking tournament, at a bowl game next year instead of OSU? How sad. Have a little confidence that you won't be so bad you drop in tournament at least...
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
Throw in an Organisational Unit of Officially Sanctioned Users and it could really get confusing.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
OU is in Athens, OH (closer to Cincinnati) while OSU is naturally in Columbus.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
If you'll esxcuse me I'm going to go slink off in a corner now. At least the correction came from you;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I swear, if this wasn't Slashdot, that comment woulda been +5 funny in seconds. You non-sports-watching fiends.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
that my Alma Mater was #3 on the list and that my local university is #10 on the list.
Perhaps there's still hope in the American university system after all..
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Ohio University (not Ohio State University) has to have one of the worst and most incompetent IT staff I have ever met.
Their "Open Network" for "Academic Freedom" is a bunch of BS. Its "open" because they haven't a clue how to even start
securing it. I met several of their IT staff and management last year at a local event in Athens. They are totally clueless.
Unfortunately, their IT staff seems to work on a buddy system, the couple of folks I met there last year seemed to be there
because their "buddy" got them a job there.
Ohio University leads U.S. colleges in complaints of file sharing by the RIAA.
This is not a measurement of who's actually file shareing most, as an activity people don't like to advertise, it's very difficult to say who's engaging in it most.
There's nothing to do in Athens, Ohio except drink and screw (and apparently download every byte on the Net). It's a liberal arts school whose student body is at best of modest means. Most of the OU grads I've known have been office assistants, who no doubt have transported their surfing skills to the workplace. Mark me down for flamebait if you must, but this headline should be filed with other 'stunning' headlines like "GW Bush dumb", "Britney Spears flakes out again", and "Vista unsecure after all".
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
For the record, heads rolled after the data compromises of yesteryear and security has become the driving concern in its wake. (As well it should!) Even if incompetence abounded before, I should think that now that the university is the target of so much negative press, things will get much better year after year.
...but OU is usually one of the more consistantly ranked schools at the top of the #1 school to party at, get drunk at, and get knocked up on accident at, if I remember correctly.And now it's the #1 place to get your bootleg "Buffy" collection going... why would you bother with anywhere else?!?
The original generic sig.
Here on my campus, in Ohio but not OU or OSU for those who can't read, we have a movie channel. On the movie channel it sounded like a documentary on downloading files illegally so I was interested. It turned out to be a school made video of how illegal downloading can get you kicked out of school... I still have nightmares of the stupidity of the film. They student who got kicked out had his computer basically stolen from him. He was not present when it was taken and someone came and took it while he was out. Very stupid and horrible acting too.
hello
It wasn't modded +5 funny because it was just wrong. As 10000 comments above me state, the article is talking about OU not OSU...
I got nothin'
They're not the university with the most file sharers...they're the university with the most file sharers WHO GOT CAUGHT. The smart thing to do is ensure that most file sharing is within the university, not with outside sources, to minimize exposure to the ??AA. If you're getting caught, you're doing it wrong.
I think that the key here is that their network is conducive, basically, to getting caught.
They don't give any details in the PR puff-piece that's linked from the Slashdot blurb, but it sounds like they must be issuing every client on the network its own externally-addressable IP address. While this is kinda cool, from the perspective of being able to run your own server or something, it also makes it exceptionally easy for the RIAA to home in on you. At other places, where individual PCs are hidden behind NAT, it's more difficult to pick out a particular client and send a subpoena / violation order. Having a single externally-facing IP per user pretty much eliminates their plausible deniability.
NATed networks have a more defined 'edge,' between what's the Public Internet and what's the internal network. I generally applaud Ohio U. for having an open network, because in most cases it's a Good Thing, however, it means people have to be more careful when they're setting up a file-swapping network, because it's more likely that their 'private' network is going to be accessible by, and/or linked to, the outside world, than it would be if they were on a private subnet with non-routable IPs and firewalls that were set to block all incoming connections.
Basically, they're having a regular Woodstock of file sharing, while everyone else is smoking joints in closed rooms with the curtains drawn. The openness may be fun, but it also makes it a whole lot easier for the Man to notice and walk right in.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Universities need to do something in order to protect their students for the legally questionable attacks by the RIAA. One solution would be to use anonymizing software or fast changing dynamic IP addresses.
Students should be much better protected from the RIAA. A responsible university could increase online anonymity of their students e.g. by encouraging the use of anonymous filesharing software.
-pec'!!
Yea, I was wondering how Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University figured into this.
I am an Ohio University student and incidentally, my internet was shut off YESTERDAY for seeding Adobe Creative Suite 2 and a couple movies. They told me I needed to delete the files, and then call them back. I called them back and they basically told me that I might get in trouble if I get caught again and gave me my internet back.
Turns out PeerGuardian 2 never started up. Oops.
You are correct, sir!
Hellz yeah!
If OU actually offered something other than CDigix , then we students wouldn't have to resort to other means. Now, being an OU Computer Science student, I myself don't participate in rampant file sharing with everyone. But a number of friends of mine, all who own iPods, neither know anything nor care about DRM. All they know is that the music on the their little box works and they like to get music from their friend's little boxes. I've tried explaining to some that it's technically illegal to do that, but they just don't care because they don't see it as doing anything wrong. We have one major store in town, Walmart, and it's not within a reasonable walking distance. Why would freshman/sophomores, living in the dorms, who aren't allowed vehicles on campus, want to bother with trying to get to Walmart to buy a disc when they can just get it from their friend down the hall?
The Ohio State University has the most students in the country.
Ohio University, in Athena, Ohio does not. They are the ones the article is talking about.
(Ohio University sophmore here.)
As many have said before, this is just the number of people getting caught. Seriously, most of the kids here are not the brightest bulbs when it comes to not getting caught downloading music.
I run a basic computer services business here for experience and some income. I'd say 90% of the people I help have limewire installed and when I ask them a few questions, few to none understand how the university can track what they're doing. The ones that do simply don't care. Ignorance is bliss apparantely.
The Boston Herald covered this a few days ago. While the year is only half over, the number of RIAA complaints is already three times what it was last year. It looks like the RIAA got smart and narrowed their indiscriminate abuse of 12 year olds and working moms in housing projects. Now they are indiscriminately abusing University students. The problem for them is that there's no good victim for their harassment, especially when they are wrong so often. The reaction from schools like Purdue is what I'd like to see. Purdue told them to find another bagman. Shame on those schools that have given in so quickly.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
You, sir, have spoken the name of the Beast. I'm from the boonies outside of Marietta, myself. Are you also a survivor?
:]
Athens is the poorest, most backward rural area of all of Ohio. It's about 20 minutes from Marietta, though. Not even part of Appalachia, IIRC, though it would fit right in. I spent a couple summers there.
I almost went to OU, and it is definitely a party school, though OSU isn't any kind of slouch in that regard. At least columbus is flat enough to flip a car over properly.
re: subject: Screw Oklahoma AND Oregon!
Shaw's Principle: Build a system even a fool could use, and only a fool would want to use it.
The idiots are the people who gave two different universities near-identical names.
They don't give any details in the PR puff-piece that's linked from the Slashdot blurb, but it sounds like they must be issuing every client on the network its own externally-addressable IP address. While this is kinda cool, from the perspective of being able to run your own server or something, it also makes it exceptionally easy for the RIAA to home in on you. At other places, where individual PCs are hidden behind NAT, it's more difficult to pick out a particular client and send a subpoena / violation order. Having a single externally-facing IP per user pretty much eliminates their plausible deniability.
No, Federal law is eliminating anonymity on University networks. A fierce level of wiretaping capacity is required. This has less to do with the kind of addressability you have and more to do with book keeping. While the new network is easier for those in control to wiretap, it's harder for others, because they are going to switched networks more like the phone lines of old. In order to catch people, the RIAA either has botnets on campus or some kind of Carnivore network. Either way, the network and the bad guys know who you are.
Plausible deniability comes from the technical incompetence of the RIAA. This works regardless of network type as well. I expect a large fraction of the suspects are innocent, just like their last batch of extortion victims. The story that emerged from that fiasco is one of a sloppy dragnet based on hearsay, and hired guns.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
No no no...you all have it wrong. It's all the great pot. Blame the weed.
They got the quote from him wrong. What he meant to say was, "Stop downloading and have some Pastamania, brother!"
The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio University leads the nation in illegal music download notifications, having received 1,287 RIAA complaints since September, with between ten and 15 notices arriving daily.
Gives me kind of a warm, fuzzy feeling about Ohio U.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Ah, but is it unreasonable to assume you can perform meiosis (or is it mitosis?)
Hmmm, Moses supposes my toeses are roses, Moses supposes erroneously. Nope thats no help.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
BSU will pass up OU in file sharing in the last few seconds using trick plays.
When I was an undergrad at RIT two years ago, they would regularly send the names of the top 10 or 20 uploaders to RIAA for investigation. With the speed of their networks, the "Top 10" class meant gigs per month. I was in a philosophy class with one guy who had been fined around $40,000 by RIAA. He had to sell his car and drop out of school for a year. He said that he still shares music and movies, after all, "They took my car and a year of my college education. Now I feel like I DESERVE the music!"
Just the greatest concentration of stupid college students who don't know how to cover their tracks when they want x song. How come I'm not overly surprised? I'm a fan of sharing files with those whom I can trust, or at least those that are in the same boat as me (such as other college students or colleagues...) but other than that, eh whatever, go find it yourself.
Sounds to me that Ohio University = stupid non-tech students as the majority.
Lets take one example...MIT. Now we all can assume that those at MIT probably do quite a bit of stealing of digital content whatever it may be, and yet Ohio University beats them? Uhm, no they don't. They're just the stupid people who can't cover tracks is all.
Now we know that liberty can be quantified by RIAA notices, and tallying the drunken shouts of WOOO down the avenues!
Course if R.K.L. Collins and D.M. Skover are correct on that front, then this IS a useful measure =)
Ice Cream has no bones.
When I went to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown they were in the top ten for beer consumption per person according to High Times magazine. Now you have to register your 6-pack with security before you bring it on campus... Go OU
Trust me, nobody here at OU wants to be a Buckeye. There's plenty of Buckeye fans here, which is moderately enough, but we're all proud to be a part of Ohio University, and contribute to the Athens, OH tradition.
The Bobcats (OU) only wish they were as awesome as Buckeyes (OSU).
OU is a trailer park with nice trees. It is harmless, vague, and dopey, much like its student body.
OSU is a festering cyst. For the sake of honesty, it should be renamed back to "Ohio A&M College"; for the sake of humanity, it should be torn down.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Wouldn't surpise me if this had a slight dent in how many people want to goto the uni.
If your neighbours roof is flying past your window, you know it's cyclone season.