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Ohio University Leads U.S. Colleges in File Sharing

Posted by Zonk on from the go-buckeyes dept.

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. "

6 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Related Article by DanVarga · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html

  2. Top 25 schools... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Top 25 schools... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints.
      And it gets very agressive in some places. A friend of mine got caught sharing House episodes, and the university charged her an "administrative fee" of $100 for informing her that she had been caught. No legal protection or anything, just payment demanded for services not requested (and does it really cost $100 to forward an email?).
    2. Re:Top 25 schools... by InsaneMosquito · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I also attend NIU. I'm very surprised that we are so high in the list because our "Abuse Investigator" is pretty proactive about shutting down copyright violators - in some cases even overzealous, shutting down people who's games happen to run on a P2P port or a use bittorrent to download patches.

  3. Note: Ohio University is not Ohio State by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

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  4. Open Networks for Academic Freedom? by susano_otter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So... with OU students benefiting so much from all this Academic Freedom, they must lead U.S. Colleges in academic excellence too, right?

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