Ohio U. changes file-sharing enforcement

David Hendricks
University Wire
04-25-2007
(The Post) (U-WIRE) ATHENS, Ohio -- Internet access to Ohio University's most egregious file sharers will be cut off Friday, more than two months after the recording industry began its nationwide crackdown on college music sharers.

Network users whose data transfer exceeds a predetermined amount will lose Internet access. The exact amount of transfer that will trigger a shutdown won't be released, said Brice Bible, chief information officer, who added that the change will only affect users putting a significant strain on the network.

University officials have been formulating a new way to enforce university policies against file sharing since February, the same month the Recording Industry Association of America began its crackdown on college music sharing.

The monitoring goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday morning, and students must call the IT service desk and agree to stop sharing files to have their Internet access restored.

University software can't distinguish between legal and illegal files, Bible said, adding that the university is looking into software able to make that distinction.

"Legal file sharing is absolutely fine," Bible said. "I absolutely understand that there are certain protocols that certain individuals use for legal reasons."

Network users with a legitimate reason to transfer large amounts of data can get exempted from the policy, Bible said. IT will consider and issue exceptions.

The university will issue a statement of concern to students who receive copyright infringement notices or exceed the data transfer threshold -- if they don't have previous offenses. Judiciaries will handle second offenses.

Intranet file sharing -- file sharing within the university's network -- won't be monitored because it doesn't pass through the university's edge router, where data transfer for peer-to-peer programs is measured.

"The real hope is once we announce the policy, we'll see a tremendous decrease (in illegal file sharing)," said Kent Smith, vice president for Student Affairs. An information session on the policy's change in enforcement is scheduled for noon tomorrow in Baker University Center room 230.

Copyright holders sent more than 2,300 complaints to the university this academic year, including 100 pre-litigation settlement letters from the recording industry. A John Doe lawsuit filed April 13 seeks the identities of 10 students who didn't commit to a $3,000 settlement with record companies within 20 days of the complaint.




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