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Many Universities Spending $100K/Year Enforcing P2P Rules

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the god-bless-america dept.

Scott Jaschik writes "A new study documents just how much money colleges are spending on enforcing P2P rules through software license fees, hardware, and other costs. Many private universities are spending more than $100,000 a year — a major allocation of funds. An article in Inside Higher Ed explains the study and its findings."

31 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Or... by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They could use the money and get more bandwidth.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Or... by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Funny

      They could spend the money on a slick, feminist ad campaign to get more BEWBIES into engineering school.

    2. Re:Or... by FiveDozenWhales · · Score: 3, Funny

      The solution is obvious: the only way to ensure 100% compliance with HEA mandates is to cut off internet access altogether. That'll save the $100k policing costs AND a whole bunch in bandwidth fees!

      Plus, a lot less papers citing Wikipedia as a reference.

    3. Re:Or... by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You try living at college for 4 years without using the internet for anything personal.

    4. Re:Or... by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Funny

      And they could hold on to their precious, precious virginity until they're married, stay off those evil reefers and goofballs, turn their darn hippity-hop music down, and get off your lawn.

      None of the above will happen in the few remaining years of your lifetime, nor even in theirs.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    5. Re:Or... by Ephemeriis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or... students could use an academic network for academic purposes only, and get their own bloody network connection if they want to download music? Y'know, just a thought.

      I'd honestly like to hear how that is supposed to work when you're living in a dorm room.

      When I went to college everything had to go through the school. We paid the school for our cable TV, because outside companies were not allowed to run cables into the dorm rooms. We paid the school for our landline phones, because outside companies were not allowed to run cables into the dorm rooms. And we paid the school for our Internet, because outside companies were not allowed to run cables into the dorm rooms.

      I suppose that these days you could probably get a cell phone with a data plan and plug your computer into that... But I doubt it would work very well, either from a cost or performance standpoint.

      Additionally you've got a question of where you draw the line between academic purposes and everything else. Is sending an email home to the folks ok? How about emailing your professor? How about emailing another student? What if you're a music student and trying to download something from a P2P network for the sole purpose of writing a report about it?

      Colleges are put in the very uncomfortable position of ISP for their residential students. On one side you've got the academic leanings towards free speech and open access... On the other side you've got the same issues ISPs have with providing adequate bandwidth to all their customers...

      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
    6. Re:Or... by theaveng · · Score: 5, Funny

      When I went to college all I had was a 28 kbit/s line, and I survived all four years. You could survive too on slower access.

      I also had to walk uphill, through snow, to get to class.
      No, really, I'm serious!
      Penn State's snow removal team was not very good.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    7. Re:Or... by Dan667 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nice call there, except not everyone is stealing when they use the internet. If you are doing any work on big data projects like astrophysics, etc you would use a lot of bandwidth

      Sony, EMI, Warner Bros, and Universal are stealing from Education, Tax Payers, and Musicians. Feel free to spread that.

    8. Re:Or... by HungryHobo · · Score: 5, Funny

      And they'd move the snow while you were in class so you'd have to walk up hill through snow going home as well :D

    9. Re:Or... by lattyware · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So, you are saying everyone using more than 128k is a pirate?
      Yeah. I don't agree.

      --
      -- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
    10. Re:Or... by michrech · · Score: 4, Informative

      The college for which I work limits internet bandwidth in the dorms to 384kb/s per port. We still have many port disconnect notices each week due to illegal file sharing.

      Access to any other "local" network resources is limited to 100mbit/s (the speed of the majority of our network). This allows them to work on "big data projects like astrophysics", and allows for plenty bandwidth to watch youtube/hulu/etc videos, check email, IM, etc.

      --
      bork bork bork!
    11. Re:Or... by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Correct. And for those who are not stealing, they don't need any more than 128 kbit/s line. That's MORE than enough speed for emailing text or accessing websites. Heck, I access websites using a 50k phoneline, and it works just fine. Why a student "needs" (keyword) more than 128k makes no sense to me.

      So, when your OS provider decides to push a 300 Megabyte upgrade at you, what do you do?

      128K also isn't enough for live video. Youtube extensively buffers at that speed, and the quality suffers quite a bit. Consider microscopy. Often with even the most well prepared samples, the salient details can be difficult to discern from the background. If bandwidth considerations result in extensive artifacts, those small details all but disappear.

      This argument is simply a case of "back in my day, we trudged ten miles in the snow, uphill to and from school."

  2. Step 3... by argent · · Score: 3, Funny

    1) Scare congress into passing tough new regulations on colleges.
    2) Get colleges to pay for your copyright enforcement.
    3) Profit! Maybe...

    The problem is that even after you do all this, do you actually make more money?

  3. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sorry, I don't believe this. I do the exact same thing for large networks and it doesn't cost anywhere near that much, what I think they did was *any* software or hardware which was used in the process was added to the total cost.
    Ordinary IDS/IPS which just happens to also be used to detect/stop P2P? Add full cost of the solution.
    These stats are shady.

  4. My university is pro/antibittorrent by Plazmid · · Score: 5, Funny

    My university both supports and is against bittorrent. There are posters that say we shouldn't use it, while at the same time there are instructions on how to securely use bittorrent on a university website. Guess it's because we have one of the co-creators of bittorrent on campus.

  5. Pennies in Legal Compliance by mpapet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Reality check: this is peanuts.

    How much does the university pay for all kinds of other legal compliance? How many lawyers on staff?

    There's no doubt this is a ridiculous compliance issue. But the average slashdot reader continues to buy new DVD's and pay absurd monthly video content fees that directly support the RIAA. Dog forbid I mention watching less television or consuming fewer media conglomerate products.

    --
    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
    1. Re:Pennies in Legal Compliance by gooman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the average slashdot reader continues to buy new DVD's and pay absurd monthly video content fees that directly support the RIAA

      Those purchases directly support the MPAA. Just as evil, but a different group.

      --
      "Kittens give Morbo gas!"
  6. misleading... by qwertphobia · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a bit misleading in my experience.

    I would say that the services and equipment which are used to fight or support or enforce P2P issues are easily at the $100k level in larger universities.

    However, the equipment and services are also used for other purposes such as regulating bandwidth usage, fighting viruses and worms, and limiting network access to only members of the University community.

    --
    Never ask for directions from a two-headed tourist! -Big Bird
  7. That's only 1 FTE by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Insightful
    $100k buys you about one full time person. When you add in all the extra costs (healthcare, faciities etc) on top of their pay.

    On that basis it's hard to see how they could do a proper job for less.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    1. Re:That's only 1 FTE by Free+the+Cowards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The question is not whether they could do a proper job for less. The question is whether they should be doing this job at all.

      --
      If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
  8. Obligatory quote, I suppose by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Chris: BOOBIES!!
    Lois: Chris, That's enough! Well I'm sure glad to be out of there
    Peter: You said it Lois, what those people are doing just ain't natural.
    Chris: BOOBIES!
    Lois: Did you hear me young man?
    Meg: I don't know what the big deal was? I thought they were nice.
    Chris: BOOBIES!!
    Lois: Peter?
    Peter: Do it.
    (Everybody besides Chris puts on sunglasses and Lois reveals the Neuralizer from Men in Black, and uses it on Chris)
    Lois: Did you have fun at the circus today Chris?
    Chris: Elephants are bigger in person!

    1. Re:Obligatory quote, I suppose by Hojima · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I know that a lot of people aren't taking this issue to heart, and a lot of people agree that relative to the university budget, this isn't a lot of money to be spent. However, people need to stop seeing this as a fraction of a large budget, and start seeing it for what it truly is. It isn't until the economy start to depreciate that people see the value of small numbers, and if they would have seen it earlier, it would be helping them out more in desperate times. Just last year, my university paid for Carlos Mencia to do some stand up. Apart from the fact that he's a terrible comedian that did the exact act that anyone can see on comedy central, I'm sure they spent somewhere in the area of the amount that it would cost to keep our multimillion dollar gymnasium a bit cooler for the rest of the year. When you waste that kind of money on something useless, you're not doing your job of keeping university priorities strait. What my university essentially said, is that it's important for some hack to tell everyone that Mexicans eat burritos, so we have to sacrifice comfort when working out. Hell, the robotics club could have used a fraction of that for a better processor on our land vehicle.

      --
      Help fight spam
    2. Re:Obligatory quote, I suppose by theaveng · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Good post.

      Another example on a more-personal level: I have a credit card that gives me 5% off gasoline and food. It's only ~50 cents per fillup or 5 cents per hamburger, which is no big deal, but those pennies quickly accumulate. In just this year alone, I've received $300 in rebates. That's enough money to pay three months worth of electricity bills.

      Small amounts add-up to big amounts. Small wastes add-up to huge wastes & internal corruption.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    3. Re:Obligatory quote, I suppose by tftp · · Score: 3, Funny

      In just this year alone, I've received $300 in rebates.

      Then you either filled your car up about 600 times per last year (twice a day) or you ate 6,000 hamburgers (20 per day.) Those are amazing numbers!

    4. Re:Obligatory quote, I suppose by TheSambassador · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Parent is right on the dot. My school recently spent about $100,000 bringing some rap groups (Three-Six Mafia and some other guy) for a free concert for our school. Of course, our tuition fees are still only going up... yet it's hard to see why some of this stuff is necessary.

      Why do universities spend so much on P2P? Is it just to avoid the legal fees of the RIAA possibly going after them? Couldn't they just allocate a certain amount of bandwidth to each student (maybe like 512k or so) and let them do whatever they want with it?

  9. Re:Numbers are fun by Etrias · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a way, $100,000 isn't much for a university...any university really. Salary costs alone would eat up this amount quickly.

    No, this $100,000 is likely coming out of small campus programs who are lucky to have a budget. If it's being routed out of the overall tech budget, chances are that's the computer lab upgrade budget or other small, but needed programs that could really use that money. Seems a shame that money isn't being used better.

  10. Chop off students' hands by gelfling · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously, you want ruthless compliance then mutilate people who violate it. And while we're at it let's execute pornographers in the town square. In fact let's make all crimes capital crimes. What about all the GOOD things they do in North Korea?

  11. Re:Numbers are fun by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My wife has worked for more than one University and let me tell you that the waste across the board is horrendous. This is just a drop in the bucket but yet another example of short sighted wasteful spending. Meanwhile, tuition continues to go up at a rate that greatly outpaces core inflation.

  12. Exactly. by plasmacutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Colleges are put in the very uncomfortable position of ISP for their residential students.

    and they should behave like an ISP and stop filtering crap for unrelated corporate interests.

    Just follow the law and provide information if served with proper papers, and let the students *gasp*, make their own choices and take responsibility for them.

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    1. Re:Exactly. by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      this is not true with universities. They have massive internet throughput, and if they apply DSL speed policies to each residence hall connection, there would be no issue with bandwidth hogs.

      As for the other ISP's used in your rationalization, they need to INCREASE.. THEIR... CAPACITY. You don't see any other manufacturer engage in rationing when they reach plant capacity. They add wings to their plant or build a new one.

      Not to mention that we have to respond to p2p notices. At our school, we get so many notices that one full-time staffer (at $40k/year salary--with benefits, the cost goes up to around $55-60k/year) devoted to working with issues related to the DMCA. That's not insignificant.

      100k a year to censor student lines and deny them the right to civil disobedience (and to face the possible consequences thereof) against abusive corporate interests, or a couple more staff members. Hmm..

      Did your university also refuse to provide computer networks because that would require you hire IT staff?

      How about sports fields because you'd have to increase grounds keeping budgets?

      What makes the MAFIAA so special. Welcome to the real world where costs increase occasionally.

      If we didn't discourage p2p using technological means, it may well require more staff, as I assume that the notifications would increase.

      Oh NO!! you'd have to do your jobs instead of screwing the students on the MAFIAA's behest!!!

      And most of the people who have to do the grunt work of the DMCA enforcement at the university level (again, at least here) really hate every aspect of dealing with it, and really wish that the RIAA/MPAA would just go away.

      So instead, you subject your students to the great firewall of china at their behest, inconveniencing them much more (especially wow players) than your staff, who should be doing their jobs. (the jobs people like me paid 30k/yr after aid to do)

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  13. Real problem is absurdity by jasmak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I recently graduated from Penn State and the real problem lies with the fact that the people in charge of discipline action have no idea what they are doing. They are not special tech administrators but instead send you to the Judicial affairs office for violations. I had my internet turned off for 2 weeks and could have gotten a disciplinary action from the school (such as suspension, expulsion, etc) because someone had apparently downloaded the shareware version of Dreamweaver from me. Yes I am talking about the 30 day trial. Until you get administrators that understand technology, you cannot be effective in this fight against student rights.

    --
    It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.