Some Ohio University network file-sharers could lose Internet access tomorrow, 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 starting tomorrow at 12:01 a.m. The university won't be releasing the exact amount of transfers that will trigger a shutdown, said Chief Information Officer Brice Bible, who added that the change will only affect users putting a significant strain on the network.
Students affected by the monitoring must call the IT service desk and agree to stop sharing files to have their Internet access restored.
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.
At his press conference yesterday, OU President Roderick McDavis said the university is reviewing the judiciaries' model it uses to determine how it can handle file-sharing cases.
Illegal file sharing is considered theft and misuse of the university network, both of which are Code A offenses under the student code of conduct. Judiciaries handled 1,156 Code A offenses during the last academic year.
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.
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 campus music sharing.
We're certainly sensitive to the events of the recent past ' obviously the RIAA has some concerns about peer-to-peer file-sharing
McDavis said. But more importantly we have to be concerned about the utilization of (network) resources above and beyond what would be appropriate.
University software can't distinguish between legal and illegal files, Bible said, adding that the university is looking into software that can 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 to the policy, which McDavis said he hopes allows for legal file-sharing on the university's network.
We're trying to be sensitive to an appropriate measure to take and I think that this new policy strikes the right balance
McDavis said.
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, announced to students in an e-mail yesterday, is scheduled for noon today in Baker University Center room 230.
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