Increased enforcement of illegal online file-sharing breeds caution on campus
Crackdown by recording and motion picture industries account for rise in complaints against students, officials say

BY RAY DELGADO

Slowly but surely, the warnings against illegal online file sharing and downloading seem to be getting through to students, even though no one can say with certainty what the impact has been.

The number of recording industry complaints filed against Stanford students and others are holding steady this quarter compared to last spring, but that figure also reflects stepped-up enforcement efforts from the recording industry ever since it started suing everyone from teenagers to soccer moms and grandfathers earlier this year.

Universities across the country have watched with great interest as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has waged war on the biggest offenders. Universities like Stanford provide the network service from which anyone given Internet access can do just about anything they want, given the network supports it. And because many forms of peer-to-peer file sharing are perfectly legal as long as copyright is not infringed, most universities allow the practice on their networks.

Stanford places no restrictions on access to peer-to-peer file sharing sites, although peer-to-peer uploads are given lower priority within a traffic-shaping program that prevents network overload. But mindful of the legalities raised by the recording industry, Stanford and other universities have gone out of their way to inform students about the issues surrounding file sharing. Ninety percent of copyright complaints filed by companies hired by the recording or movie industry turn out to involve students, according to David Hoffman, manager of information security services.

Returning students who had to register their computers on the network this fall were greeted by a usage policy that explained copyright laws and reiterated the university's policy against copyright violations. Students had to read the policy and then click on a button that said they agreed to follow it, said Rich Holeton, head of residential computing.

"We thought it was important to make sure that students were exposed to the policies on campus," Holeton said. "Generally, most students will have to re-register their computers and will see that policy."

Most students and others within the university community also received a second letter from Provost John Etchemendy last spring that warned against "pirating intellectual property" through the university's computer networks. Violators of the policy could have their names turned over to copyright owners who file complaints with the university (as required by law) and could lose computer access and face university disciplinary proceedings, according to Etchemendy.

The university's residential computer coordinators (RCCs) also received extensive training this year on the issues surrounding illegal file sharing and were asked to discuss the matter with their dorm residents at the beginning of the year. Additional resources are also available for RCCs to help educate students about file sharing, Holeton said.

"[Illegal file sharing] is a controversial social issue, and that's our approach to educating students about it," Holeton said. "We want them to know what the law is, how Stanford is required to respond to the law and appreciate that Stanford doesn't take a draconian approach to the law."

Other universities have taken more dramatic steps to ensure they are not sued based on the actions of their students. More than 100 students at the U.S. Naval Academy had their government-issued computers seized and were punished for trading files on the academy's network earlier this year. Students in four dorm rooms at Ohio State University were also busted earlier this year for running a file-sharing service on the university's network. Many other universities have simply eliminated student access to certain file-sharing websites and programs.

Complaints filed against Stanford students have increased sharply over the last several years as the recording and motion picture industries have stepped up their enforcement efforts, according to Holeton. The university received only 60 complaints in the 2000-01 school year, but that number jumped to 610 complaints in 2002-03, Holeton said.

Because universities potentially could be liable if they know about illegal file sharing and don't do anything to prevent it, most, including Stanford, avoid monitoring it altogether. That's why no one can say with any certainty what the impact of repeated warnings has been.

But, according to some students interviewed by Stanford Report, publicity about the lawsuits and university warnings have hit home.

"You hear stories about people getting sued and it makes you stop," said senior Ian Dobson, a political science major who lives in the Mirrielees apartment complex. "My roommates are like me. We're all of the same opinion that we don't want to get sued."

For someone like Dobson, who built a healthy music collection with the help of peer-to-peer file sharing sites like Napster and Kazaa during his first few years as a student, the risk just isn't worth it anymore. Now, he either goes without new music or he borrows and copies friends' CDs, a practice that he said is fairly common among his group of friends.

Many students also have found ways around the file-sharing conundrum by taking whatever music they want and then disabling their computers' ability to make that music available to others. The practice is still illegal, but they are less likely to draw the interest of the recording industry if they are not among the biggest infringers.

The increasing popularity of the pay-per-song music catalog iTunes has also given students access to the songs they want for 99 cents each, a price that many find affordable. Even better, many students' computers are linked to those of many of their peers who live in their dorms -- allowing them to listen to the collections of others even though they cannot download or copy anything.

"You can get on iTunes and you see a list of other people's music, and you can usually find something you want to listen to," said Ian McGraw, a junior computer science major. "There are 50 or 60 folders of music with thousands of songs. You can always find someone with similar tastes."