Comments on: Gatekeeping Hits Close to Home http://ipinthedigitalage.com/gatekeeping-hits-close-to-home/ CPSC 182 at Yale College Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:09:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: laurenhenry http://ipinthedigitalage.com/gatekeeping-hits-close-to-home/comment-page-1/#comment-737 laurenhenry Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:02:53 +0000 http://ipinthedigitalage.com/?p=184#comment-737 Universities are considered gatekeepers in the context of the DMCA. Shouldn't the DMCA should protect Yale from liability for student use of P2P downloading of copyrighted works? Assuming that a student online is performing a "research" function on the Yale network, and Yale puts effort into telling students not paying for music is wrong, and does not interfere with RIAA attempts to prosecute students, I don't see how Yale can really be taken to task for students downloading copyrighted work. A school should not be forced to get some kind of Ruckus or Choruss-style program to be entitled to safe harbor protection. I think it is unreasonable to expect universities (nonprofit, educational entitites!) to divert a significant amount of financial resources toward controlling a problem they didn't create and do not profit from. Apparently lobbying has led to legislation like the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, still pending a vote in the House. That bill directs schools to "develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity." This would effectively force universities to purchase plans like Choruss or the former Ruckuss. That does not seem fair, especially to schools that lack Yale-sized endowments. Universities are considered gatekeepers in the context of the DMCA. Shouldn’t the DMCA should protect Yale from liability for student use of P2P downloading of copyrighted works? Assuming that a student online is performing a “research” function on the Yale network, and Yale puts effort into telling students not paying for music is wrong, and does not interfere with RIAA attempts to prosecute students, I don’t see how Yale can really be taken to task for students downloading copyrighted work. A school should not be forced to get some kind of Ruckus or Choruss-style program to be entitled to safe harbor protection. I think it is unreasonable to expect universities (nonprofit, educational entitites!) to divert a significant amount of financial resources toward controlling a problem they didn’t create and do not profit from.

Apparently lobbying has led to legislation like the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, still pending a vote in the House. That bill directs schools to “develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.” This would effectively force universities to purchase plans like Choruss or the former Ruckuss. That does not seem fair, especially to schools that lack Yale-sized endowments.

]]> By: Evin M http://ipinthedigitalage.com/gatekeeping-hits-close-to-home/comment-page-1/#comment-729 Evin M Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:13:14 +0000 http://ipinthedigitalage.com/?p=184#comment-729 My uncle is/was the CEO of Ruckus, and he's said that unless Congress goes on a crusade against campus file sharing, students aren't going to slow down. It's just a matter of having available formats in which to share music...and we've got plenty of alternatives--from Mojo to SadSteve to Myspace Music. How is it that these seem to go under the radar at Yale? As freshmen this year, we had an elaborate orientation to the tech rules, internet regulations, file sharing no-no's, etc. And yet...the Harry Potter-themed educational videos hasn't stemmed the flow of music sharing here. My uncle is/was the CEO of Ruckus, and he’s said that unless Congress goes on a crusade against campus file sharing, students aren’t going to slow down. It’s just a matter of having available formats in which to share music…and we’ve got plenty of alternatives–from Mojo to SadSteve to Myspace Music. How is it that these seem to go under the radar at Yale? As freshmen this year, we had an elaborate orientation to the tech rules, internet regulations, file sharing no-no’s, etc. And yet…the Harry Potter-themed educational videos hasn’t stemmed the flow of music sharing here.

]]> By: Michael L http://ipinthedigitalage.com/gatekeeping-hits-close-to-home/comment-page-1/#comment-661 Michael L Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:55:10 +0000 http://ipinthedigitalage.com/?p=184#comment-661 Interesting post. One thing I noticed, however: I doubt that the reason that Yale switched back to giving non-netregged computers access to at least Yale only sites is so that Yale could "maintain its status as a common carrier and avoid being classified as a private network", because now Yale actually only gives non-netregged computers access in private areas like dorm rooms. You actually can't get any access at all if you're not netregged and you're somewhere public, like the library (I only know this because I spent at least an hour trying to figure out why an off-campus user's desktop on which I had just done a reinstall wasn't getting an IP address--not even a nonroutable one--in Bass library). That said, however, I'm sure if it wanted to Yale could claim to the powers that be that it gives anonymous access, and just let them assume it means anonymous access regardless of location. Interesting post. One thing I noticed, however: I doubt that the reason that Yale switched back to giving non-netregged computers access to at least Yale only sites is so that Yale could “maintain its status as a common carrier and avoid being classified as a private network”, because now Yale actually only gives non-netregged computers access in private areas like dorm rooms. You actually can’t get any access at all if you’re not netregged and you’re somewhere public, like the library (I only know this because I spent at least an hour trying to figure out why an off-campus user’s desktop on which I had just done a reinstall wasn’t getting an IP address–not even a nonroutable one–in Bass library). That said, however, I’m sure if it wanted to Yale could claim to the powers that be that it gives anonymous access, and just let them assume it means anonymous access regardless of location.

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