March 20, 2008
U. of South Florida Makes Students Think Twice Before Downloading
The University of South Florida has installed software on its network that has helped curb illegal music and movie downloads, according to the Tampa Tribune.
The move comes after 124 students in the past year have been caught using file-sharing software such as Limewire and BitTorrent to download media files illegally.
But while other institutions have used systems that completely block Limewire, BitTorrent, and similar programs, the software that the university has chosen instead redirects students to a Web page which makes them promise not to use the P2P software for illegal purposes. The program was developed by Red Lambda.
Strange as it may seem, file-sharing programs are used for legitimate purposes at times, says Michael Pearce, the university’s vice president of information technology.
“Some schools have taken the approach of, ‘If we see the traffic, we just block it,’” he says. “I wanted to go out and give our students an awareness that they are using it.”
Instead of screening files for certain electronic signatures, or watching for irregular network traffic, the $75,000 software detects the type of file-transfer protocol being used on the network. It doesn’t block illegal file sharing completely, but students who violate their promises and are caught by the RIAA are disciplined.
Mr. Pearce says that the reaction to the new measures was fairly positive after he introduced it to the student senate. —Hurley Goodall
Posted on Thursday March 20, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Wonderful, so the student is first punished by the RIAA and then again by the university.
Double jeopardy much?
— T Mar 20, 04:57 PM #
This isn’t a court of law at USF, you know — double jeopardy doesn’t apply.
Since they’re committing a crime, anyway, they should be punished by the courts AND by the university for violating TOS.
That still isn’t double jeopardy, even if these kids were expelled.
— Sol Mar 20, 04:59 PM #
Double jeopardy does not equal double jurisdiction. Sol has learned the same lesson that any grad student learns in a basic Higher Education Law class.
— Dallin Young Mar 20, 06:35 PM #
$75,000 software that does not actually prevent illegal downloads, but instead only redirects to a Web-page? Somehow I would think that a packet-sniffer/throttler would be much cheaper. Comcast seems to have throttling down, maybe USF and Comcast could get together.
— Scott Mar 20, 09:07 PM #
USF’s approach is in keeping with its educational mission. Not every one understands the DMCA.
Leaving aside the legal definition of double jeopardy, the RIAA has sued only a very small percentage of alleged violators of the DMCA. Colleges that are ISPs (are there any that aren’t?) have the opportunity and responsibility to use each DMCA complaint from the RIAA or other organizations as a teaching opportunity. And when a violator repeats, then local disciplinary action may be appropriate.
— James Mar 21, 06:29 AM #
I work at USF and Limewire and BitTorrent have not been popular ways to download movies and music for 3 years now. It seems as though the technology and the RIAA are still behind in terms of knowledge of how files are illegally swapped.
— Michael Mar 21, 07:22 AM #
The schools have a very good reason to limit illegal downloading – bandwidth is expensive, particularly for schools far from large urban centers (unlike USF). This is the minimum that should be done to prevent unnecessary downloading.
— me Mar 21, 08:51 AM #
Not BitTorrent? I thought torrents was the latest technology for P2P
— rocco Mar 21, 10:17 AM #
USF’s CTO is Michael Pearce, not Pierce.
Michael Pearce Appointed as USF’s Chief Technology Officer
Red Lambda does more than just redirect to a webpage, and actually got its start at UF.
Meet cGrid, the real-time P2P punisher
The real threat is still the RIAA, whose powerful lobbying has persuaded the feds to cut funding if universities don’t address illegal filesharing.
— Joey Butafuco Mar 21, 12:54 PM #
The music industry can develop a service that allows free music downloading, viewing of music videos by hosting a community site much like youtube. This could translate in to advertising dollars for the music industry. Advertisements could be included in the beginning of songs and music videos. That’s only the beginning. Partnerships with colleges and universities can generate potential advertising dollars and sales. The music industry can offer students a limited amount of free weekly music downloads per week. Audio downloads could be automatically deleted after a certain period of time to reduce file sharing. This is an opportunity for the music industry to learn about their customers at a deeper level.
— Frank Mar 21, 06:25 PM #
Frank, advertisements at the beginning of songs and videos? Why not just listen to the radio and watch TV?
— jm Mar 21, 07:46 PM #
I also work at USF, and I beg to differ about Lime Wire and Bit Torrent not being popular methods to download music and movies.
I work with students on a daily basis and you’d be surprised at the number of laptops that I’ve come across that still have Lime Wire and/or Bit Torrent installed and being ACTIVELY used.
— Chris Mar 24, 10:00 AM #
This is an expansive way, but a workable way to allow students to do what they need to do. Good job.
— Marc Mar 24, 10:04 AM #
Frank, USF does have a partnership with Rukus for free DRM’ed music downloads for students.
— Zach Mar 24, 11:01 AM #
The Chronicle of “Higer Education” should hire educated writers and editors. Thiis article indicated that studnets were ‘catught” using software “to download media files illegally”.
While one may incur civil liabilities by providing media files for downloading, IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD any type of media files (except possibly child pornography), even copyrighted files.
Please help elevate the discussion, not contribute to fallicies if you are going to publish news to promote the cause of “higher education”.
— Chase Mar 24, 07:11 PM #