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Security Spotlight

P2P File Sharing on Campus: The Battle Isn't Over

By: Doug Gale

2/8/2008

Exhibit 4: Student Piracy was Exaggerated
In 2005, as part of stepped-up campaign combating the piracy of movies, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that 44 percent of the film industry's claimed $6 billion per year domestic losses to piracy were the result illegal downloads on college and university campuses.

In January of this year they announced, with some chagrin, that their earlier claim was incorrect and that the correct figure was more like 15 percent. The MPAA and RIAA have made extensive use of the erroneous figure to promote legislation that would transfer the responsibility--and cost--of preventing student piracy to colleges and universities.

Exhibit 5: The Recording Industry is Still Seeking a Legislative Remedy
In December 2007, the House Education and Labor Committee unanimously passed "The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007" (H.R. 4137), which directs U.S. colleges and universities to plan for network filtering and for alternative music and movie download services. The House and Senate may consider that legislation as early as February 2008.

Exhibit 6: The Recording Industry Is Exploring Alternative Business Models
In December 2007, Nokia, a maker of cell phones, and the Universal Music Group, the largest in the recording industry, announced that they would offer unlimited free downloads of Universal music to buyers of certain Nokia phones. Universal will get a portion of the revenue from sales of the phones.

Exhibit 7: The Recording Industry is Broadening the Issues over Which It Sues
The RIAA has broken new ground in its battle to stem the tide. It has decided to sue people who rip tracks from CDs that they own to their own computer for personal use. In a December 2007 lawsuit against an Arizona man, the RIAA argued that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

This new hardline is in contrast to the older policy that is still on the RIAA Web site, as of this writing: "... Burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won't usually raise concerns so long as: The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own [and] the copy is just for your personal use."

So What's the Picture After We Connect the Dots?
I see three trends important to higher education emerging:

1. The legal battles aren't over (Exhibits 3 and 7). Despite the fact that higher education has been more conscientious and concerned about the problem than many other segments of our society (