[WEB4LIB] Re: FW: RE: Kazaa/Morpheus/et.al.

[Thomas Bennett]

Dan,

The approach our campus computing center took is: Do the students have the
right to commit copyright violations?  According to our campus computing
center their view is that if the user has purchased the item, say a CD, then
the user does have the right to have the mp3 version of the songs that are
on  that CD.  Access to the programs that install local servers such as
Morpheus are denied from off campus ip addresses.  Denying access to the
students machine from outside sources I don't think would be a violation of
the student's right.  Basically our Computing Center has validated limited
port access via copyright infringements and so far I haven't heard any
feuding over it.  Our Network Support Services found that a lot of the
traffic previously flooding the back bone was from off campus IPs accessing
napster, morpheus and these type programs on student machines and some staff
and faculty.  I suspect the University is liable by providing the means for
the user to violate the copyright laws, you may want to check with your
University Lawyer.


You may want to go to the URLs provided here for easier reading.

>From the Campus Computer Policy at
http://www2.acs.appstate.edu/computer.htm

Theft includes the stealing of any property of the Institution, or State of
North Carolina. Violations include, but are not limited to:
 copying, or attempting to copy, data or software without proper
authorization.



The Resident Network policy:(Resnet is the subnet all students are allowed
on for their personal machines)
http://www.resnet.appstate.edu/resnet/usage.html

Includes:

The University reserves the right to remove ResNet users from the network
without cause or notification. This removal may be permanent if the user has
violated any of the Policies or Rules as stated in this or other documents

ResNet reserves the right to remove ResNet users from the network if the
amount of traffic is determined to be unusually high.

Application Servers
Under no circumstances will any ResNet user be permitted to use their
network connection to freely distribute application software. This is
violation of the Federal Copyright and Trade Secret Laws. ResNet reserves
the right to remove a ResNet user from the network. The user will be subject
to discipline under appropriate University policies.

Copyright/Intellectual Property
Under no circumstances will any ResNet user be permitted to use their
network connection to freely distribute copyrighted materials without the
owner authorization. This includes all digital media. This is violation of
the Federal Copyright and Trade Secrets Laws. ResNet reserves the right to
remove a ResNet user from the network. Violators will be removed from the
network and subjected to discipline under appropriate University policies.


And at the bottom of the page for the ResNet policy is:
The University reserves the right to monitor and control the use of the
network services. Due to limited bandwidth, the University may limit the use
of network services such as multi-user download utilities or web services
(for example, Napster), Anonymous FTP, game servers, etc.


Thomas

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Dan Lester
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 11:22 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: FW: RE: Kazaa/Morpheus/et.al.


Thanks for the comments so far.  I may not have communicated clearly
in my first message.  We have the ABILITY to block Kazaa or anything
else with Packeteer.  We don't have the PERMISSION to do so due to
campus politics, the "rights" of the dorm students to have
unrestricted acces, and so forth.  To a certain extent we're dealing
with dueling VPs.

What I'm MOST interested in is not the technology, but if any of you
in academic libraries have dealt with the politics, if any.  Or, if
you have any policies or documents, on the web or elsewhere that I
could see, that address this.

Yes, bandwidth is relatively cheap.  We could go from the equivalent
of 10 T-1s to a full T3  (i.e. from 15 MB to 45MB) for 24K to 42K a
year over the current charges.  However, there is some concern that
even that could be filled by Kazaa and similar.  There is also the
question of money.  We just had our budget cut 13% (the university,
not just the library), so money is very tight.

Anyway, thanks for the comments, both on and off list, and hope to get
some more about policies.  Do you limit Kazaa, for example, during day
and not at night, what percentage do you give to those services, and
so forth.  Personally, I'm VERY unhappy that the less than ten percent
who live on campus are ruining research and academic access for the
whole university.  Yeah, I know I often say that no one promised me
life would be fair, but that doesn't mean I don't want to correct the
wrongs that I can.

Ammunition for me, y'all?

thanks again

dan


Thursday, January 31, 2002, 7:50:03 AM, you wrote:
MGE> Lots of companies are going bust because they constructed way more data
MGE> lines than there is a market for, but the result is that we should be
able
MGE> to make good deals for a long time.  That is if some of them stay in
MGE> business.
MGE> Good comment, Bill.  This, if there is funding, is the way to go.





--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!