Earlier this week we mentioned that colleges would soon be hearing more about cGrid, the program that automatically boots students off the Internet when they fire up peer-to-peer networking software. As it turns out, that’s already happening.
In a letter notifying campus officials that the Recording Industry Association of America is reviving its campus antipiracy campaign, the trade group’s president, Cary H. Sherman, recommended the software to colleges as a way of reducing students’ exposure to lawsuits. “Products like Red Lambda’s cGrid are promising as effective and comprehensive solutions that maintain the integrity, security, and legal use of school computing systems without threatening student privacy,” Mr. Sherman wrote.
And Red Lambda, the company that sells cGrid, argued today in a news release that “integrating antipiracy technology is far less expensive than litigation for your students.” The company says its software will save colleges money by freeing them from copyright-infringement complaints and, now, from pre-litigation notices. Given the cost of responding to such notices, some campus administrators may find the economic argument a compelling one, even if they have misgivings about cGrid. —Brock Read
