University Promises To Report File Sharers To Police, Tells Students They Can Spend 5 Years In Jail
from the this-is-what-we-teach-people? dept
Remember a few years back when the entertainment industry used totally bogus stats (which they later admitted were bogus) to get Congress to pass new laws requiring universities to become copyright cops? While many universities have been struggling under the economic burdens of this law, apparently one university, Valdosta State University, in Georgia, has embraced the new law with gusto, not only implementing a new system,
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Filed Under: copyright, police, universities
Companies: valdosta state university
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Surveillance Run Amok
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Re: Surveillance Run Amok
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Re: Surveillance Run Amok
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Re: Re: Surveillance Run Amok
Look at what the FDA has been doing...
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Re: Re: Re: Surveillance Run Amok
Coincidentally, Mike posted a picture illustrating and making fun of the concept of how public facilities are being denigrated: When The RIAA Is The 'Standard' For Evil. In that picture GM has licensed the use of an interstate highway solely for GM cars!!!!
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is it me or when the title says: THEY CAN spend 5 years in jail, it sounds like its there choice shouldn't it be: THEY COULD spend 5 years in jail.
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Re:
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What is the fastest way to get students to stop attending your college?
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"Attend Valdosta, Go To Jail"
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*From Atlanta*
So it should come as no surprise that the University would do something so backwards. Personally, I wouldn't go there if they PAID me. After having friends there, telling me how the people really are belligerent when it comes to technology or social networking (small town mentality) I'd rather not give that place the time of day.
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Resembles a Hoover
http://torrentfreak.com/university-begins-reporting-all-p2p-users-to-the-police-101112/
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Why do people keep trying to get me to stop breaking the law?
By the way, I think everything should be free. Go make me a sandwich and bring it to me now.
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Re:
No one said that.
Why do people keep trying to get me to stop breaking the law?
No one said that.
By the way, I think everything should be free. Go make me a sandwich and bring it to me now.
No one said anything remotely like that.
Please, if you're going to try to challenge basic points, at least sound a *little* intelligent.
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Re: Re:
You expect too much from industry trolls.
If this is the same "make me a sandwich" guy, you'll recall that he did actually come on here and make some arguments. They weren't good arguments, so he was proved wrong by a bunch of people.
So now, rather than state anything that could actually be debated, he just maligns and insults people. That's what happens when you don't let facts get in the way of blind faith.
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Re: Not exactly the point, (PS: Sandwich at end.)
You own an amusement park. Families are paying you to attend your amusement park. They are also wearing counterfeit name brand sneakers. Is it your job to check everyone's sneakers and report them to the police? No? Well, it shouldn't be the college's job to sniff out P2P traffic and report it to the police. The students are paying customers of the college. The in-room networking in the dorms is part of what they paid for. The students are just using it. If they use it for something illegal, why should that be the college's responsibility?
You own a commercial building. Someone rents a store front from you to sell t-shirts and buttons, and movie posters. If he is selling counterfeit t-shirts, should Tommy Hilfigger expect you to take responsibility for it? Should he be able to take you to court and force you to check every single business transaction that occurs on every one of your rental properties, just in case someone sells a counterfeit Hillfigger item? Now just imagine all the different manufacturers of different branded consumer goods forcing you to identify all the items in every one of your rented out stores and make sure that nothing goes on that they don't approve of on their behalf, for free, just so you don't get sued, (again!) There is an interesting business model...
You can rent a car. People do all the time. If you commit a crime using a car you rented, is the rental company responsible? Should the rental company use GPS to track where you, (and everyone else,) go, and report to the police every time you go to the bank because you might be a bank robber? Should they report to the police every time you go to the store because you might be a shop lifter? If one rental company gets successfully sued for the actions of one of its customers, that is what will happen. It will cost more to rent a car because they will have to pay for software and manpower to monitor where you go and note what parking lots you stop in.
There are many legal files you can download on P2P. Linux for one. Any other opened source software as well. By reporting ALL P2P usage, they are possibly implicating honest students. You pay your taxes, but some people cheat on their taxes. Should your local ISP report every customer that files their taxes online because they could be cheating on their taxes?
Here is another example that pisses me off. Micro$oft, Windoze, and Windows Media Player. Media player used to be this tiny little app that played sound and video files. Microsoft got into the business of selling DRM to the media companies, so now when you pay for a copy of Windoze, the media player, embedded into the OS, is checking to see if you have a license for your media files. Media player used to be tiny, now it is about 50 times its original size, because M$ is checking up on you, and is doing their best to make sure you see the media they want you to see, and buy the media they want you to buy, from them or through them, and do not see or hear media that they do not approve of. If I buy an OS, I shouldn't have to pay for the privilege of being snooped on by it.
P.S. You have every right to have someone make you a free sandwich and bring it to you. You also have every right to be disappointed when you don't get it.
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Re:
Having gotten that off my chest, did you know that World of Warcraft uses P2P systems (specifically BT) to distribute the updates for the application? This can happen as often as every Tuesday. I'll venture a guess that there are probably one or two college-age people playing WoW. Why should they have to deal with whatever idiocy will come of a university reporting "suspicious" web traffic?!? And this is just one example of quite legal, mainstream usage of P2P.
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murder -> two years with double credit for time already served
hit and run -> two misdemeanor counts
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Re:
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Jump on the encrypted anonymous networks or else.
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we know what is bogus - So does Mike..
No Mike they did not admit any such thing, as you damn well know.
Show us where they say "these stats are BOGUS" ?
Ofcourse you do not do that, because of one simple reason, what you are saying is what is in fact what is bogus.
Ofcourse if you search far enough, from your site, you find a DEAD LINK, to support the 'bogus' claim..
This one..
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j33CBI8sUdc5ni7RlxSj5SIEc2mwD8UB6S0O2
So show us a statment issued by the MPAA that states "our stats are bogus"
And what does it matter anyway, if 15% or 44% are breaking the law, its got nothing to do with statistics.
If 15% or 44% are people who murder other people it does not matter at all for each individual case, its still breaking the law.
Regardless of the stats, and if Universities are 'only' downloading ILLEGALLY 15% of the total that is still a huge amount.
And something the Government funded Universities need to stop, why should I pay taxes so some uni kid can use the university system not to learn, but to copy song for his own gains?
If you want to sponsor people downloading songs for their own use, go for it. But im not willing to pay for equipment that is ment to educate people THAT I FREAKING PAY FOR, so they can view porn, or download music, that any honest person has to pay for, has to pay sales tax on, that pay more to the Uni kid to steal my stuff..
Screw that,,
Just as I expect the air force not to give away free joy rides with my taxation money, I dont want universities that are supposed to educate, to teach kids how to steal, and to show them it's 'ok' for them to steal, as its only 15% of the total damage.
Once again, Mike you cannot seem to see beyond the first level of complexity, you do not see the forest for the tree's.
Get a clue Mike, learn how the planet works, and stop lying on behalf of others, it destroyes you reputation, which has never been that good !!..
What is truly bogus is your inability to tall the truth, and to make any level of logical sense.
You saying something is bogus is almost an endorsement that it is anything but bogus.
If Mike says its bogus chances are the original claim is 100% true, but Mike's understanding of anything is bogus..
So im waiting for the link please Mike.
You know the one that actually supports your 'claims'.
Take your time, its not like you have anything better to do !! (except flog crystall ball, paywalls )..
Show me the link, or any facts would be good.. any at all, that would be a pleasant surprise...
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Re: we know what is bogus - So does Mike..
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/mpaa-s-error-oops-college-students-aren-t-so-b ad-after-all
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Re: we know what is bogus - So does Mike..
MPAA STATEMENT ON MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY LOSSES DUE TO PIRACY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS (130 KB) January 23, 2008
and a little more info from cnet.com:Feds hampered by incomplete MPAA piracy data - April 19, 2010
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He showed you...
He showed you. Now apologize.
P.S. It is a proven statistical fact that 87.9% of all statistics are made up!
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Re: He showed you...
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Re: we know what is bogus - So does Mike..
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Sandwich
Okay, let me know what type of sandwich you'd like and where you live - I'll be right over.
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It's Georgia
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Values and Power
Bush's Great Recession has put great strain on the power of faculty and students everywhere to fight for academic independence and on-campus civil liberties. Their financially battered state college administrations are too worried about keeping schools open and figuring out how to raise fees and cut costs. They have no attention left for why exposure to expensive lawsuits and penalties could be morally correct and politically positive.
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Nonsense
> information it's being given.
No kidding. Even if it were a crime, it would be a *federal* crime and as we all know from the Arizona illegal immigration law, the local police can't possibly enforce federal law. So says the Justice Department, anyway.
In reality, a small-town PD like Valdosta, Georgia, won't give a tin-flip about some kid's supposed copyright violations. I just imagine the police chief's response to the university's first call:
VU: Chief, we've got one of our students over here who used the wifis to download Beyonce's new album and an episode of "America's Next Top Model" off the torrents.
CHIEF: Okay... good luck with that. We're busy doing police work over here.
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Re: Nonsense
If something isn't illegal under state law that they find someone doing? They are just supposed to contact the feds and let them handle it, if they even wish to.
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Re: Re: Nonsense
> under state law, then they can contact the feds and the person
> can be tried for the crime in question both in state and federal court.
Which is what the Arizona law did-- it copied the federal law and said "this is also now a state crime".
The DoJ apparently doesn't think states can do that-- ignoring the fact that they've been doing it for 200+ years.
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Re: Re: Re: Nonsense
Basically, the localities and even states don't have the right to 'copy federal law' in this case because the Constitution says that they cannot.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Nonsense
> ANY FASHION to immigration or immigration enforcement according
> to the Constitution.the localities and even states don't have the right
> to 'copy federal law' in this case because the Constitution says that
> they cannot.
The Constitution says no such thing. It gives the federal government jurisdiction over immigration but it doesn't prohibit the states from enforcing federal law through concurrent state legislation.
As I said, the states have been doing this exact same thing for 200+ years and it's never been a problem before.
For example, Article I, Section 8, gives the federal government jurisdiction over the prosecution and prevention of counterfeit currency. Yet all 50 states have passed laws on the state level making counterfeit currency a state offense as well. And the state and local police routinely arrest and prosecute people for making fake money.
You can find literally dozens of examples of states copying federal law and making concurrent state offenses out of them. It's a commonly accepted practice.
Except when it comes to illegal immigration. Whenever illegals are involved, all the normal rules go out the window. The only rule that seems to apply is, "Anything that would tend to discourage or limit illegal immigration must be stopped immediately."
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Universities and file-sharing
But then, we have Bob Jones an Orel Roberts "universities", so it shouldn't be a shock, I guess.
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Does P2P include Skype? Dropbox?
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Do they even have the right?
And as MikeLinPA pointed out there are plenty of legitimate non-pirated files on file sharing sites. Linux OSs, app manuals, tutorials, websites compiled into pdf's by their authors, free e-books, troubleshooting tools, etc. Of course the RIAA fanboys will scoff at this, but, maybe they should go look for themselves, if they can open their minds long enough to see something other than their own self-righteous opinions.
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Re: Do they even have the right?
The colleges aren't allowed to 'eavesdrop' on your phone conversations just because you are using their phones.... why should this be any different?
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