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Georgia College's New Policy — Reporting All P2P Users To the Police

Posted by timothy on from the because-networking-is-wrong dept.

An anonymous reader excerpts from an article at TorrentFreak: "Georgia's Valdosta State University has updated its network with software that can pinpoint students who use P2P software. The university is committed to stop file-sharing on its network even if that results in prison sentences for students. Offenders will be disciplined by the school and then handed over to the police, the university has announced." School policy is one thing ("don't use file-sharing software on our resource-constrained network, or we may kick you off"), but I suspect the police wouldn't appreciate the task of sorting out legal from illegal use of widespread, essentially neutral software tools. Update: 11/15 18:27 GMT by T : Reader (and VSU alumnus) Matt Baker contacted the school; he reports that the school's IT director Joe Newton in response flatly denied the claims in the TorrentFreak article, and says the school hasn't installed such P2P tracking software, and doesn't hand students over the police, and says instead "I cannot foresee that we would ever do so." Thanks, Matt.

5 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't this going to get expensive? by RogueyWon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, I'm no expert on the US legal situation, but what's to prevent a situation like this from happening:

    1) Student installs 100% legal copy of World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2 or any other game which uses a P2P updater system on their PC in their dorm room.

    2) Game does its P2P stuff to get its patches.

    3) College spots P2P activity and calls police.

    4) Police charge college administrators with wasting police time.

    5) Student sues college.

    Like it or not, P2P isn't just about illegal filesharing. Yes, I'd fully accept that most P2P traffic is illegal, but a blanket policy like this just seems doomed to (probably expensive) failure.

    1. Re:Isn't this going to get expensive? by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 5, Insightful

      End result: College bans games. Games aid terrorism by masking real illegal activity in a shroud of legitimate traffic; they are therefore illegitimate by proxy.

      --
      You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
  2. I bought some lighter fluid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can you point me to the appropriate police department to turn myself in as a possible arsonist?

  3. So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're young, living on your own for the first time, and the place that's supposed to be teaching you stuff announces that at the first sign of a misstep they'll "discipline" you and then hand you over to the police for a second helping of same, with a permanent record attached to boot.

    What a wonderful way to grow up.

  4. Mass-downloading of legal software by captainpanic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Students should just start downloading legal p2p software... at a massive scale.

    Make sure that the university and the police department are getting overworked from false claims of illegal downloading.

    It's a peaceful, harmless and non-violent way of teaching stupid people that p2p is not always illegal.