Tuesday, August 31, 2004
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In Phone Calls, Film-Industry Executives Quiz Campus Officials About File SharingBy BROCK READ
Deans and provosts who answer their telephones in the coming months may be surprised to find themselves fielding questions about campus file sharing from high-ranking film-industry officials. Industry representatives are hitting the phones as part of an aggressive new campaign to persuade college administrators to step up their efforts to curtail online movie piracy. In recent weeks, senior officials of the Motion Picture Association of America have been telephoning and e-mailing technology officers, student-life supervisors, and general counsels at colleges across the country. Industry representatives have called administrators at 79 colleges where, the MPAA officials say, online movie trading is rampant. They plan to get in touch with 61 more institutions, according to James W. Spertus, the MPAA's vice president for antipiracy operations. The campaign is the film industry's most ambitious and far-reaching effort to bring its antipiracy message to campuses. Some college officials reached by The Chronicle said they feared that the MPAA was seeking to reshape campus computing policies. Previously, much of the industry's contact with college officials came through cease-and-desist notices sent to warn technology officers of copyright violations on their campus networks. The industry will continue to send those notifications, Mr. Spertus said. The phone conversations are part of a new drive to recast copyright infringement as a problem best solved by extensive education campaigns, rather than by technological maneuvers like using tools that block peer-to-peer file-sharing programs on campus networks. "To the extent that schools view piracy as an IT issue, I would encourage them to rethink that," Mr. Spertus said. "The deans of student life are the people who should be jumping all over this." During the phone calls and in the e-mail messages, industry officials ask college administrators what steps they currently take to warn students against movie piracy. The officials encourage institutions to strengthen their existing educational policies or adopt new ones -- like putting antipiracy fliers in student-orientation packets, hanging posters in student unions, and asking students to sign fair-use agreements before they get access to their campus Internet accounts. The industry representatives offer to provide the colleges with posters and brochures, as well as copies of a best-practices guide prepared earlier this year by the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, a group of college administrators and movie and recording-industry executives that has studied file swapping on campus networks. The telephone campaign is an accompaniment to, not a vehicle for, the industry's attempts to act against students who trade pirated films, according to Mr. Spertus. Campus response to the campaign has been "overwhelmingly positive," he said. "Most schools realize that they do have a problem with illegal file sharing." But some campus officials who have received phone calls or e-mail messages said they worry that the movie industry is pressuring them to do its bidding -- or that it is planning to check in frequently on their antipiracy efforts. Technology officers at Northeastern University, for example, are still deciding how to respond to an e-mail message sent by Lauren T. Nguyen, senior counsel for the MPAA's antipiracy program. In the note, Ms. Nguyen asked for details about Northeastern's campus-computing policies. "I would like to find out if Northeastern has a document that states what the university's policy is regarding the illegal downloading of copyrighted material, and whether enforcement procedures exist when students are caught engaging in acts of copyright piracy," she wrote. "I also wanted to find out if the university, in fact, monitors its network for file-sharing traffic." Northeastern officials plan to discuss the note with the university's general counsel, according to Glenn C. Hill, the university's information-security manager. "We did note that the message came from a counsel's office," he said. "We're planning to consider the message in depth, in terms of what it seeks to know and what it asks of the institution." Juan Franco, vice president for student services at Utah State University, recently fielded a phone call from an industry representative, but the conversation was less formal, he said. Mr. Franco offered a brief update on his university's antipiracy efforts, and accepted the MPAA official's offer to send papers prepared by the industry. "I didn't feel pressured," he said. "If the material they send along is something useful, we'll share it with our students." Following is the text of an e-mail message to Northeastern University from Lauren T. Nguyen of the MPAA's antipiracy office: I was referred to you by [...]. I just got off the telephone with [...], who suggested that I send you an email. By way of introduction, I am with the Worldwide Anti-Piracy Program for the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA is engaging in an outreach effort to universities (including Northeastern University) that have been identified through industry search engines as having an unusually large number of students who utilize university systems to illegally download copyrighted material. We recognize that this puts a strain on university resources, in addition to causing harm to copyright holders, and that we have a mutual interest in addressing this problem effectively. We see this mainly as a "student life" issue, in addition to being a systems administration issue. We are interested in working with your school in a cooperative manner. I was calling to offer our assistance to you. I would like to find out if Northeastern has a document that states what the university's policy is regarding the illegal downloading of copyrighted material, and whether enforcement procedures exist when students are caught engaging in acts of copyright piracy. I also wanted to find out if the university, in fact, monitors its network for file sharing traffic. On a more general note, we have a package of material, including effective policies that have been adopted by other universities, student posters talking about the illegality of copyright theft, and other pertinent material that I would like to send to the proper person, be it you or [...]. We would also be interested in knowing whether the university would be willing to take certain affirmative measures to address this problem, such as (1) sending emails to students alerting them to university policies, (2) sending an "acceptable use" policy to parents, (3) implement a user agreement that students must accept before they can use their Internet accounts, (4) including an anti-piracy flyer in new student orientation packets, (5) putting up copies of the anti-piracy poster that we have prepared around campus, or (6) any other measures that you deem appropriate. I would greatly appreciate hearing back from you (or another appropriate representative) at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Sincerely,
Lauren T. Nguyen
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Copyright © 2004 by The Chronicle of Higher Education