Colleges combat illegal file-sharing

With new advances in technology occurring rapidly, university
officials are constantly grappling with effective ways to patrol
violations of copyright law at college campuses across the nation,
including UCLA.

A five-page report detailing the efforts universities have made
during the past year to curb Internet piracy of music and movies on
college campuses was shared with the public at an Aug. 24 news
conference call. The conference call was held by the co-chairmen of
The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment
Communities after it had been submitted to Congress.

“The report is designed to provide a snapshot of what
universities around the country are doing,” said Jonathan
Lamy of the Recording Industry Association of America.

Officials at college campuses are tackling the issue using four
major approaches outlined in the report: “Legitimate Online
Services,” “Educational Initiatives,”
“Enforcement” and “Technological
Measures.”

Twenty universities across the nation have signed deals with
companies such as Napster 2.0, Ruckus and Realnetworks Inc. to
provide students with discounted legal downloading,
pay-per-download services and free music streaming. The report
announced that later this fall, Napster and Microsoft will launch a
service which allows students to download music to MP3 players with
a subscription fee.

According to the report, “publicity of enforcement”
““ which ranges from warnings to fines and in some cases
expulsion ““ has been an important and successful component in
reducing illegal activity.

Some universities, including UCLA and UC Berkeley, have limited
students’ bandwidth, which limits the amount of data that can
be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time,
in an effort to control the problem on their own campuses. Other
schools use technology to filter or block file-sharing over their
networks.

Many campuses, including UCLA, have instituted anti-piracy
lectures into students’ orientation sessions and are
constantly reminding university students and staff about the issue
through letters and e-mails from the highest university
representatives.

UCLA regularly alerts the campus community to the personal risks
involved with illegal file-sharing.

“As a creator of intellectual property, UCLA respects
copyright protections and does not condone the illegal or
inappropriate use of copyrighted materials, whether through online
materials or otherwise,” said Jim Davis, Associate Vice
Chancellor of Information Technology in an April report.

“At the same time, UCLA respects due process and the
student disciplinary process, and is striving to balance this
respect with UCLA’s intention to comply and promote
compliance with copyright laws.” Davis said.

In addition to orientation sessions and bandwidth management,
UCLA has an integrated approach to addressing copyright
infringement, including educational activities for students and
parents, letters to all residents and signed Internet use
agreements for all residents.

A “quarantine” approach is currently being practiced
in the university residence halls, which will affect approximately
11,500 students and faculty in the upcoming year. Under this
system, when a user makes available copyrighted material to others
without permission, their Internet access is
“quarantined” and access is limited to
education-related work only until forms are filled out and
appropriate disciplinary action is made.

According to “UCLA Quarantine Process”, a report by
Davis, both assistant deans of students believe this process
““ which was implemented during the third week of spring
quarter ““ is doing well. There was a substantial drop in
notifications at the point when “quarantine” went into
operation.

Spring quarter saw the least amount of claims ““ only 52
““ while the fall and winter quarters had 67 and 89 claims,
respectively. Of the 52 claims made during spring, 22 came in
before the “quarantine” and the remaining 30 came in
after it was implemented.

There also have been no incidents of first and second claims
after the quarantine went into effect ““ meaning that if a
student illegally downloaded a copyrighted soundtrack and had that
computer “quarantined,” the student would receive a
warning and have to sign forms to release his computer from
quarantine status. UCLA officials never had cause to
“quarantine” a second time.

The committee, made up of university leaders, higher education
organizers and music and motion picture executives, formed in fall
2002 to develop solutions in combating illegal file-sharing on
college campuses. The committee is trying to battle the
distribution of copyrighted works on campuses, mostly through
peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

“It is a knowledge base that universities can turn to and
can ultimately conform it to their own university practices,”
Lamy said of the report.

More than 3,000 users have been sued by the recording industry
for illegal file-sharing over the past year. Among these were 158
students from 35 universities across the nation.

The epidemic of illegal file-sharing has caused Congress to get
involved in the battle.

“Congress has recognized the huge impact that this is
having on the recording industry,” said Bill Mahon of Penn
State University. “As technology evolves, there is a greater
potential for the theft of movies and damage to the movie
industry.”

Hearings by the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee
on Courts, who requested a copy of the report to stay updated on
the committee’s progress, are scheduled for next month.

“Efforts on what will be done over the next year are still
under discussion,” Lamy said.