Law Would Tell Universities To Do The RIAA's Bidding, Or Lose Funding

from the not-your-place dept

Tue, Jul 24th 2007 2:34pm — Carlo Longino

The RIAA has consistently complained that there should be laws forcing colleges and universities to stop students sharing unauthorized music on their computer networks, and its extensive lobbying efforts have seen legislators in the past to "drop the hammer" on schools that don't comply to the RIAA's wishes. That hammer came a step closer to being dropped, as reader Blake writes in to let us know: an amendment to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act, which funds colleges and universities and the students who attend them, was introduced this week, and it would cut funding from schools that didn't install technology to try and block P2P file-sharing on their networks. It looks like the amendment got yanked following university complaints, but its introduction highlights the ridiculous amount of clout the RIAA carries in Washington (an amount it seeks to further increase). The RIAA's attempts to abuse the legal system roll on, and now it's attempting to pervert the legislative process and American higher education as well. It isn't the job of colleges and universities to do the RIAA's dirty work, and the government shouldn't be forcing them to do it, either.

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Filed Under: congress, p2p, piracy, politics
Companies: riaa

33 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:11pm

Because so much legitimate, educationally constructive file sharing over P2P on college networks would suffer if this happened. Because, you know, ftp and email just don't work anymore.

It's not hard to stop P2P. I don't see why they didn't.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:43pm
  
  Re:
  How is it easy? You can't monitor connection count, because that would get rid of valid uses that establish multipul connections to different IPs(Skype?). You can't filter by establishing connections to multipul ports as technologies are now starting to roll out that masquerade across port 80 so it will look like valid webpage usage. You can't filter by packet sniffing because encryption would be an easy plug-in to bypass that. Nor, can you filter by bandwidth usage because yet again, that would get rid of valid usage. So exactly how is it easy to stop P2P on a network when everyone on the network has a vested intrest in P2P programs.
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  - inc, 24 Jul 2007 @ 4:11pm
    
    Re: Re:
    That's easy... disband the network... networks of all kinds including the sneaker net, using usb drives. How do you do that? Simple close the University. I'm sure the RIAA's neo-communist agenda would approve.
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    - Charles Griswold, 25 Jul 2007 @ 10:03am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I'm sure the RIAA's neo-communist agenda would approve.
      Wow. You sure managed to hit the nail right on the thumb with that observation. True communists would believe that since everything should be communally owned, we have a natural right to share files over P2P networks. The RIAA is an extraordinarily capitalistic organization, and (IMHO) embodies everything that can go wrong with capitalism.
      
      And before anyone accuses me of being a communist, I'm not. Communism relies on the inherent selfless nature of humanity; something that I'm convinced doesn't exist. True communism is a nice idea, but it will never work.
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  - anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:42pm
    
    Re: Re:
    XP are you dense? there are PROCESS blockers for skype if you truly believe its bad, you can disable ports with ease if you know wth your doing. and skype isnt p2p RETARD, p2p is file sharing, torrent files, limewire, and frostwire. things like that!!
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- anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:23pm
  
  Re:
  what the hell are you against the students u make humanity look bad #### off! or at least understand from a student view as well, NO MUSIC, NO VIDEO, NO CHAT(S) OF ANY KIND, NO P2P FILE SHARING, STUDENTS ARE WATCHED 100% OF THE TIME!!! (syncroneyes and various vnc applications) not all students will F- up so all students shouldn't be punnished! hell, the only allowed search engine is GOOGLE add 99.7% of websites are blocked even ones needed for the schoolwork and assignments.
  
  the students deserve a break! LETS LET THEM SPEAK, THEY DESERVE A SAY IN WHAT HAPPENS TO THERE EDUCATION TOO!
  
  im leaving this page to cool off, btw THIS SHITS POISON!
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- anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:38pm
  
  Re:
  I'm not rude I'm honest... they can block websites, and music, & pictures of obscene natures.but when students need resources , and there blocked school districts are going TOO FUCKING FAR. i am saying for the good of ALL of the united states the school system needs to be CLEANED. I've known teachers FIRED for telling the TRUTH about making mistakes (like a kid being on the wrong list for things as little as field trips) because the school didn't like her telling the child and the parents about her mistake(referring to the example)they fired her.
  
  things like this must be fixed this school system is corrupt. it needs to be fixed. (as always)
  
  THIS SHITS POISON
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anonymous coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:17pm

why don't you just close college bars and liquor stores if the students are using p2p networks, that would really hit the students where it counts, right in the old six pack!
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- Mystified, 24 Jul 2007 @ 6:00pm
  
  Re:
  And how is blocking access to alcohol going to stop P2P at Brigham Young and in dry counties?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:40pm

This proposed Amendment to the law has been dropped and is no longer being proposed. Someone wised up this time around.
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Prophet, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:41pm

Ok as i have done before, take my External USB drive with all of my music on it to a friends dorm and use his pc as a jukebox. It will just regress to DVD's full of music being passed via H2H networks. Back to the old bootleg
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John Canada, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:47pm

Internet
From my understanding of why the thing we call the ‘internet’ was invented was for P2P file share for universities and researchers

Am I wrong on this point???
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:54pm
  
  Re: Internet
  military
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 4:27pm
  
  Re: Internet
  Yeah but professors and students do not use bittorrent or any other popular P2P program. Especially if the research is confidential.
  
  I've had plenty of professors that use ftp, email, and physical storage. Even if they are collaborating on a project they will set up a server, not get on limewire and pretend like it's for legitimate purposes.
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  - BTR1701, 25 Jul 2007 @ 2:59am
    
    Re: Re: Internet
    As Techdirt has highlighted just this past week, there are many smaller labels and artists that are ENCOURAGING the sharing of their music over services like Limewire. And if the artist/label gives its blessing it's perfectly legal.
    
    So yes, there are legitimate uses for all of these file sharing services. It's not all piracy.
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    - anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:45pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Internet
      THANK YOU, Finally someone with a brain!
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Zach, 24 Jul 2007 @ 3:52pm

Download
Just use special Google searches to do the same thing. Arizona State (where I am at) just started blocking bittorrent (they slow your connection speed to about 5 kbps when it's on, even if you're downloading Debian ISOs) so people just had to look for newer programs (and sometimes older) to do the same thing.
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- David, 17 Jan 2008 @ 11:25am
  
  Re: Download
  I attend UM-St. Louis and I can't even get a connection with limewire or utorrent. They did something over Christmas break, but there will be ways around it. I know what you mean tho. Even 5kbps is something...
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  - anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:51pm
    
    Re: Re: Download
    I know the problem, there are only 2 ways!
    
    #1. proxy/circumvention/+anonymisers (sory for spelling)
    or
    #2. creating a VPN(virtual private network) then SSH'ing thru it (basically in full thats making a mininetwork in the main 1 with only u + any 1 u invite then using 1 to break thru both 4 u and the limeted #)
    ...
    (tsp everyone, help stop its spread!)
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Nick (profile), 24 Jul 2007 @ 4:01pm

Colleges should be encouraging the spread of culture as they do with knowledge (teaching) and literature (libraries). This is getting ridiculous. What's next? Not talking about music? You are right AC, if P2P is no legal there is FTP. Are there any open source P2P apps that run on a local network not connected to the net? That will be next way to share music on college campuses.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 4:23pm

The university I did my undergrad at nerfed all P2P programs so that you could still use them, but you could only transfer at 1 kb/s.

I'm not going to pretend that file sharing programs like bittorrent are not used 99% of the time for downloading copyrighted material on college networks. I did it. My whole dorm did it. And every other computer I ever saw had tons of material that utilized the campus' fast lan.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2007 @ 5:18pm
  
  Re:
  I'm not going to pretend that file sharing programs like bittorrent are not used 99% of the time for downloading copyrighted material on college networks.
  Everything is copyrighted by default as soon as it is made, even this comment. That alone doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with downloading it though.
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  - no one, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:27pm
    
    Re: Re:
    your a fucking liar its used less than 46% of the time, knowlege hurts dosent it? d!ckh3AD
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Akira, 24 Jul 2007 @ 4:55pm

Attention RIAA goons
Open letter to RIAA goon squad, men in cheap polyester suits and John Does 1-9999:

Your cheese has been moved. Stop whining and go find some new cheese, instead of bullying, suing and trying to legislate a world that would have the government protecting your share of the cheese. Get over it.
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John, 24 Jul 2007 @ 6:24pm

Don't feed the beast
if everyone aware of this evil just refused to buy music and educated a few friends the RIAA would become a huge liability to the artist and would die.
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Meatshield, 24 Jul 2007 @ 7:14pm

Is the government paying?
Why would they have even expected the universities to comply? They would have said implementing a filter system would be too expensive (which in many cases it is and needs constant attention), so they would expect the government to pony up for those expenses. Then they wouldn't pass the bill.

No senator wants to have "I stopped your kids from doing stuff" as their campaign slogan.
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Littletimmy, 24 Jul 2007 @ 8:13pm

"Are there any open source P2P apps that run on a local network not connected to the net? That will be next way to share music on college campuses."
It's already happening. There's a direct connect hub (DC++ BCDC) at my school that makes anything anybody on campus already has available to anybody. Hacked vista was there before the consumer release.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2007 @ 7:49am

Im just glad...
they aren't still claiming that file sharing automatically equals child porn in order generate some, "think of the children" support.
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Buzz, 25 Jul 2007 @ 8:53am

Good luck, RIAA!
What's worse than the RIAA bullying colleges around is the fact that it is an eternally uphill battle for them. The RIAA will never win. When it comes to digital content, no amount of DRM, Internet filtering, or litigation will stop the everlasting flow of piracy. With DRM, the lock and key always come packaged together; it just takes a smart person to put the two together. With filters, as someone already mentioned, passing data around on physical media (CDs, DVDs, etc.) is COMPLETELY untraceable. With litigation, customers become MORE rebellious and simply dig deeper underground.

Why doesn't the RIAA just start removing people's ears? THAT would certainly slow down piracy...
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James, 25 Jul 2007 @ 11:14am

So what happens...
..if this type of retarded amendment passes and Colleges and Universities install filtering software, blah, blah, blah.. and students STILL find a way to share media amongst themselves, then what?

Perhaps the RIAA will then ask the schools to send someone around to each dorm room and spank anyone doing anything they consider naughty?
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- Buzz, 25 Jul 2007 @ 11:21am
  
  Re: So what happens...
  I was actually wondering what it would be like if an RIAA officer lived on every floor of every housing complex. XD
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Krash, 25 Jul 2007 @ 5:07pm

RIAA
Think RIAA as Catholic Church.
RIAA sees students as heretics and what did they do to heretics during the Inquisition?

So much for the land of the free,
and what ever happened to a
"government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We are losing our freedoms little by little.
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anonymous, 30 Mar 2010 @ 1:56pm

Krash is right!!!!! he even gave a good example, though i like the bruce almighty, better the school has become the kid with the magnifying glass and the children the ants, you see where this is going.
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