Typically, when a college student gets in hot water for sharing pirated music, he or she gets slapped with a lawsuit from the recording industry. But when Mickey Borchardt, now a senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, got caught swapping songs, he had to answer to an even more intimidating body: the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
There wasn’t just one agent in my dorm room but a team. One stood at the door while another wheeled my computer out on a cart. One wearing a rubber glove dug through my trash while another sorted through my closet. After sitting me down, the first question of my interview was, Is this the screen name you’ve been using to communicate on the Internet? It was.
Mr. Borchardt had drawn the attention of the FBI by uploading "a handful of CDs" to a private, online piracy ring. "I had no special industry access, so there was very little I could supply that wasn’t already available," he says, but he was arraigned on felony charges nevertheless.
Now, having pled guilty, Mr. Borchardt faces a possible prison term. "Everybody wants something for nothing, and I’ve come to learn that ‘free’ music is anything but," he writes. "The hidden cost is enormous." (Los Angeles Times)
Developing online and blended learning programs requires research and collaboration. Learn how top technology companies are partnering with campuses across the country to advance online learning as it becomes an increasingly important aspect of higher education.