Wednesday, June 2, 2004
http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=jfie486065614s8jip2ms0jd4wpxxkqi
(available for five days without subscription)


General Accounting Office Delivers a Report on Campus File Sharing to Congress
By BROCK READ


In a report sent to Congress last week, auditors from the U.S. General Accounting Office outlined some of the steps colleges and universities are taking to prevent illegal file sharing. The document contains few surprises, and it is unclear whether it will prompt lawmakers to alter existing federal policies.

The report, "File Sharing: Selected Universities Report Taking Action to Reduce Copyright Infringement," also discusses the role federal agencies play in cracking down on online copyright infringement.

The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, is dated May 28 and has not been released to the public. The report collects the results of a study commissioned last year by members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations and the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. Research for the project began in May 2003 and was completed in April of this year.

Auditors for the accounting office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, surveyed technology officers at 13 "major universities," and concluded that most computer administrators are aware of substantial file sharing on their campus networks. All of the administrators interviewed for the study said they had used or planned to use both technological controls and campus-wide education campaigns to try to curtail file swapping.

The study goes on to describe Operation Fastlink and Operation Buccaneer, a pair of federal law-enforcement programs created to combat online piracy of music, movies, and software. The programs have focused on the prosecution of organized, large-scale piracy networks, not on individual students, according to the report.

Ted Stevens, a Republican Senator from Alaska, and Harry Reid, a Democratic Senator from Nevada, were among the legislators who requested the study. Spokeswomen for both senators said they had little information about the report and did not know whether it would be used as evidence in any forthcoming committee hearings.

The report may have been commissioned at the urging of movie and record companies, said John C. Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities. "The entertainment industry is trying to deal with copyright infringement on all fronts, both local and federal," he said. "I think they likely went to the committees and asked for a GAO report."

Together with the industry's recent lawsuits against people accused of piracy on campus networks, the study's focus on college file sharing has left some college administrators feeling singled out, according to Mr. Vaughn. "Some universities started to get paranoid: 'Why focus on us? It's happening all over,'" he said. "I think part of the reason for that is that we are a describable universe in a way the Internet at large isn't."

This puts into words my feeling that students are the most vulnerable target, and the dishonest effort to portray them as "the most unethical generation" ignores the actual statistics of computer usage.

College administators need to get their heads out of the sand and understand that this is an assault on education. Get your legal fees pooled together and resist this corporate pressure. Students are your clients and it is despicable to turn in their names.

'Why focus on us? It's happening all over,'" he said. "I think part of the reason for that is that we are a describable universe in a way the Internet at large isn't."

He is right you know if you take a look at the law suits the industry has only hit about 20 states and those have been consecutive, so if I attended Emory Univ and I file shared I may or may not be cautious of this as if I attended a University in any of the other 30 states I may not care so much. Since in many ways there is a pattern here, who got sued on the last batch, Ga, Tx, Nj, NY, Mo, Ca, ect, you could find atleast one of these in the previous law suits, some pop out twice, three times even, any new states, nope.

The RIAA has absolutely no business interfering with any educational institution in any way. Thanks partly to the dreaded "No Child Left Behind" crap, schools have enough to do without the interference of big business in any way. Teach your children--first to read, then to write, and everything else will follow. And I also don't agree today's students are the most "unethical generation." It's not their generation who are responsible for the problems we have today. And sometimes I want to crawl into a hole in the ground when I think that mine is part of the problem. Where did these old bastards come from anyway????

Ah heck ShadowMom, the universities to the riaa is like shooting ducks in a barrel. Perhaps after all the old guys from the 40's generation retire, all the cool guys from the 50's and 60's will get in there and make some good changes. We could only hope anyway.

I think we hoped that in the 60's, but then we got complacent again, and left the door open..and they just sort of slithered in.....

What you are seeing is the 40 to 60 year old slick MBA wonders who have made their living by taking, not earning. I mean earning by hard work..not by jiggling with investment portfolios so that regular investors and pensioners are the only ones who lose. These slime see the next generation as a threat and continuously keep them down "in their place". Note all the higher "standards" being erected in place to make it all the more difficult for young kids to even get work experience let alone a steady job. I'm a senior designer/draftsman and I keep trying to help the kids to learn more everyday...just like me..because I've never stopped learning.

These 40 to 60 year old bums think they already know all there is to know. That maybe true with regards to their unethical business practices...they sure have got lying, cheating and stealing down pat. The new American way..I've got mine, buddy...F*** you, I'm taking yours, too.

Hey all, long time no post, here's my 2 cents:

The RIAA/MPAA knew at one time or another in the mid-90's that with the way computers were progressing and how dialup was going to go to DSL/Cable, their business model was going to be in jeapordy. Unfortunately, due to their short sightedness, instead of adapting to new technology, they decided that lawyers should do their dirty work and hence websites such as the OLD napster were sued into oblivion and technology was blamed, instead of looking internally at what was flawed.

Is it the fault of user to use programs such as Kazaa, Limelight, Morpheous, Overnet, WinMX, or countless others, to download what they preceive as "free" off of the internet? I really don't think it's the fault of the user at all: they are harnessing the technology that is given to them in a free market economy, and there are now crybabies at the RIAA/MPAA who can't deal with the fact that the one control they had once before is now gone.

The RIAA/MPAA hasn't really learned anything (i.e. recent price hikes at iTunes.com) and the constant barrage into the media that downloading is illegal. Pandora's box has been opened and it can't be closed, and IMHO, the RIAA/MPAA doesn't seem to understand that at all.

I haven't purchased a CD in years due to costs (too expensive) and I don't download simply because I believe the quality that is available is just aweful (that's just my personal take on what I've heard on mp3 samples). What I would like to see, as a prodigal musician myself, is that the RIAA compensate musicians FAIRLY, give them the cut of the royalties for work that they have done - stop being greedy and cutting the people out who make the money for the labels. Be FAIR, and if you lead by example, perhaps the constituants that you so want to bring back as "customers" will see that and go back to purchasing music, instead of downloading them like you don't want them to.

Ok, I'm done off my soapbox...

Thanks for the link leflaw -- you make me tingly!

One more suggestion Code or tomsong -- make the graphics smaller. This one is too big and too colorful for those of us surfing at work.

Oh wait -- that isn't the campus report -- it's a GAO report on small webcasters and third parties and their effect on royalties.

leflaw

And this would be the condensed version? See you all next week....

Shadowmom--I completely agree with you, one of my sisters and her husband live Florida and all that no child left behind crap the governor has implemented there is utter garbage. I hear that thanks to the voucher system education employees are the only profession in America that pays taxes so their jobs can be taken away at the end of the year. Funny thing is that in that state, school board cert. teachers have to go through standards where private school teachers do not, another way they let big business screw with education.

I thought the GAO was suposed to be independant?

HammerofJustice--I do know things are only worse with this nonsense down here, and from what I understand, George and his Secretary of Education did not have the great success they claimed in Texas with the same type of program. From what I understand, they sort of "lost" a few hundred students who should have graduated, but simply disappeared--not dropped out, God forbid--and in Florida we have a new four-letter word worse than anything that's been banned: FCAT. Teachers hate it, students hate it, parents hate it. The only people who like it are big bro Jeb and the people in Tallahassee. They also put some incredible spins on statitistics. Too bad they don't just TEACH anymore. Thanks for the reply!