Ohio University Blocks P2P File Sharing

After receiving the highest number of notices from the RIAA about P2P file sharing, Ohio University has announced a policy that restricts all fire sharing on the campus network. Some file-sharing programs that could trigger action are Ares, Azureus, BitTorrent, BitLord, KaZaA, LimeWire, Shareaza and uTorrent. Claiming that this effort is 'to ensure that every student, faculty member and researcher has access to the computer resources they need,' is this another nail in the coffin of internet freedom in American universities or a needed step to prevent illegal fire sharing?

Comments

Freedom is not about theft

[rbanzai]

Universities are not obliged to support theft. When you download copyrighted materials at home it's completely your responsibility. When you do it on someone else's infrastructure they share the liability.

A university blocking file sharing/file theft is not curtailing freedom, they are protecting their resources. It's no different than a business preventing their employees from using the network to steal multimedia: they have an obligation to protect their resources, and stealing is not a protected freedom.

Congrats for caving to corporate terrorism UOH

[plasmacutter]

this is exactly what they wanted you to do, and you did it for them.

the terrorists at the RIAA wanted to dictate your policy to you, and when you wouldnt do it directly they assaulted you with notices until you did, and they got it.

what lesson do we learn from this?

americans have become complacent. they are not willing to stand up for their fellow man or pay the ever present price of freedom.

This is beyond contraversial.
If the lifer movement kept bombing your campus would you include "anti-abortion" clauses in your admittance contracts?
If the christian coalition kept parading through your campus would you start refusing jews, muslims, and athiests?

for christ sake let your students make their OWN choices.

people like these should die in a fire.

too bad

[imkow]

One more reason for school shooting.

Re:It's not about speech

[Jarjarthejedi]

Hmm...something tells me that an Editor saw this, read "neutrality of the network" and modded it insightful without reading the rest of the post. I wonder if this'll work for me...uh...In Sov...no, wait...Think of a Beo...now, that's not it...ah! The RIAA isn't that nice! There, that should get an Insightful...

$20 a month?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what you're smoking, but cable internet from Comcast (as an example) starts at $43 PLUS taxes per month, for existing TV subscribers. Add in taxes etc. and you're talking more like $50 a month for their lowest-speed connection with a pitiful 384Kbps upstream, and $60+ a month for their higher-speed connection with 768Kbps upstream (which as a file sharer, students would most likely want to go for).

Without TV, you start around $65 a month for 384Kbps upstream, making it preferable to just buy Comcast's lowest TV package even if you don't bother to plug it into a TV.

So far from $20 a month, you're talking double to triple that - and you still get a connection that has an unspecified cap and will get shut off by Comcast if they think you're using too much of their "unlimited" bandwidth.

Re:I wonder what level they are blocking?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never been to Ouio but I've been wanting to go. I definitely want to see that big Wall you mentioned. I am concerned about the viruses though... are their efforts helping to stop the spread? I'll have to check with my doctor and get up to date on vaccinations if I ever go.

Frankly I didn't even know they had internet access in Ouio. From what I've read I figured you would be lucky if you could even find a library with some books in a modern language. I gather from the "shareing" and "appon" that your first language is Ouioese?

Re:Judical Extortion and Free Speech.

[Score Whore]

No they don't. They have an IP address and an accusation, many of which have been proved false. What they have is the strength of bad laws that allow them to take everything you own or waste it all with court motions, both of which are better called "judicial extortion" than justice.

Yeah. That's where it starts. They see that some IP address is serving up three thousand songs to all comers. Then they contact the owner of the netblock who points them at the person responsible for that IP address. Then they submit a subpoena. Then they can move on to discovery. And in all this process they find out that, indeed, some bonehead actually is distributing thousands of songs that he or she has no right to distribute. I'm failing to see how that isn't a strong case.

The fact that there has been perhaps ten people that they track down who have made the argument "it wasn't me, it was my daughter" or "the person who subscribed to the service has died and we've been using it illegally (ie. without a valid contract with the service provider) to distribute copyrighted content" or "I'm a paraplegic, poor me, don't sue me, I've just been distributing thousands of songs, poor me" doesn't change the fact that people are breaking the law.

Keeping me from publishing my own work on the network I pay for is a violation of free speech.

So why don't you try that. Go enroll at OU, then sue them for violating your free speech because they won't allow p2p traffic on the network. I expect to see regular reports here on slashdot since I'm sure everybody here will be interested in your fighting for all our civil rights. Oh wait, I bet you totally don't have the spine to do that. You just like to talk and talk but you'll never go out there and actually fight the fight. Maybe because you realize that at the root of it, you're totally full of bullshit. (Btw, it's been long established that nobody has to provide you with a soapbox to preach from. So that might be a bit of a problem with your fantasy as well.)

First, because the networks are highly regulated all of them are publically subsidized. The network operators may not be living up to their obligations and might have wasted two hundred billion of your dollars, but they are ultimately yours and can be ordered to perform.

Second, how can I share by P2P when idiot operators block my traffic? I can buy all the hardware and service I want, but I won't be able to use it if it's censored at the receiving end.

Blah blah blah. Put up or shut up. Go out there and order them to perform. Sue them. Show the world you're right. Otherwise you sound like a child crying that you're not getting your way. Wah wah wah. I bet for your next tantrum you're going to tell us how Google is required to list your rants as top results for all searches because they got a tax break to build a data center in North Carolina and if they don't they'll be violating your free speech and perhaps your seventeenth amendment right to popularly elect your state's senators.

As far as p2p being blocked internet wide, I guess you've never taken the time to look at any of the studies that show bit torrent traffic represents some ridiculous percentage of all traffic on the net.

The amazing thing about your posts is how ballistic you are. The second someone somewhere steps in to cut down on illegal file sharing you suddenly launch like a spastic six year old with completely irrelevant, unrealistic spew about your civil rights being violated. Get some perspective and grow up, universities aren't there to give you freebies and let you put off taking responsibility for your life.