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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. "

7 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Ohio U also has the most students in the country by Kupek · · Score: 2, Informative
  2. Re:Ohio U also has the most students in the countr by Undertaker43017 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wrong school. The Ohio State University is in Columbus. Ohio University is in Athens (southern Ohio)

  3. Re:Ohio U also has the most students in the countr by Kupek · · Score: 2, Informative

    Scratch that. Ohio State has the most. Ohio only has 25,000 which is about average for a stat university.

  4. List by theheff · · Score: 4, Informative
    Here's the complete list of colleges receiving RIAA notices-

    http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?Ar ticleID=6876

  5. Re:We're Number 3! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know that UNL tracks what MAC addresses use which IP addresses and for how long. They use it to maintain the DHCP server and identify machines that are trying to use the same IP address or using IPs that they aren't allowed to use (anything over 199 in the last octet is reserved in all subnets). Troublemakers get their MAC addresses banned, which works against those who don't know how to change them. (They've had students buying new network cards to get past the blocks.) I'd expect they've enhanced it by now to even better identify which physical port they're plugged into or which wireless router. Getting caught using an unleased IP can get you banned from the network, especially if it's an IP with a number >199 in the last octet (they're reserved).

    And yes, I have seen obviously faked MAC addresses in the logs, too. Three that stuck out had all zeroes except for one one.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  6. Crackdown is nationwide and New. by twitter · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  7. Re:Note: Ohio University is not Ohio State by krotkruton · · Score: 2, Informative

    After a quick search, OSU has roughly 9000 students (2005 estimate) in on-campus housing while OU has 7800 (from their housing page, not sure when it was last updated). I don't know how their networks work, but generally you are only part of the university's network if you are on-campus, so their networks have a pretty similar capacity. It appears that OSU's size isn't really relevant in this article because the number of people are on the network are close to the same. Smaller schools generally have a higher percentage of on-campus housing out of enrollment.