A program that halts illegal file sharing will go into effect Monday in response to the threat of fines for downloading copyrighted material, an e-mail from Housing and Dining announced yesterday.
The program, Audible Magic, blocks downloads from peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Kazaa and Grokster. Audible Magic detects "fingerprints" of files that users attempt to share and halts the download if the fingerprint matches that of a copyrighted file in its database.
"It's designed to prevent illegal copyright infringement, and I don't see how you can defend why anyone should be able to [download illegally]," said Carl Whitman, executive director of AU e-Operations.
Audible Magic will be installed in the University's server, not on individual computers, and will block illegal downloading in all residence halls and parts of Mary Graydon Center. It cannot stop students from downloading illegal files in other areas of campus, Whitman said.
"If you want to do illegal downloading, you just sit on the Quad," said Adam Rosenblatt, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs who sits on the Faculty Senate's Information Services Committee and is familiar with the program.
President Benjamin Ladner's cabinet chose to implement the program as a condition on a grant AU received from an anonymous donor. The grant pays for the trial of Ruckus, a legal media downloading service, if AU would also try Audible Magic from Monday to the end of April. Gail Hanson, vice president of Campus Life, did not disclose the total amount of the grant.
The Ruckus trial costs about $46,500, Hanson said. That cost is calculated for a three-month trial at $5 per student for 3,100 students - about 80 percent of residential student population. Hanson said the University considered that not every residential student would use the program.
The grant contract did not specify which legal music download program the University should use. The cabinet chose Ruckus for its variety of both movies and music, according to Hanson. About 1,500 to 1,600 students downloaded about 130,000 files from Ruckus since it debuted at the beginning of spring semester, Hanson said. At the end of the semester, Housing and Dining and the Residence Hall Association will decide whether to keep Ruckus at a fee of $50 per student.
When the grant-subsidized trial of Audible Magic ends in April, Ladner's cabinet will decide whether to keep the program, which Hanson said would be very expensive but did not disclose a price estimate.
If the University does not try to stop illegal downloading, it could face substantial fines, said Justin Perillo, a staff attorney in AU's General Counsel Office.
"The General Counsel's Office serves as the University's designated agent for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," he explained in an e-mail. "This means that copyright owners, including members of the music and film industry (such as the RIAA, Paramount and Sony) contact our office when there has been an alleged illegal file-sharing of a copyrighted work on the University's network."
Perillo said his office, along with e-Operations, responded to more than 150 complaints from these entities in the past year. Last semester, AU received a subpoena ordering it to disclose the names of three students being sued by the record industry for copyright infringement.
Complaints included information like specific IP addresses, times and dates of the infringements, and the description of the material infringed, Perillo said.
When AU receives a complaint, e-Operations investigates to find the student responsible. The department's staff talks to the student about how to avoid breaking the law with future downloads and asks the student to remove all illegal files from his or her computer.
In rare situations when the student doesn't comply, e-Operations can block his or her access to the AU network.
"Generally [students] have been very cooperative about removing material," Whitman said.
The Faculty Senate Information Services Committee issued a statement yesterday detailing concerns about Audible Magic. Although it supports AU's "two-pronged strategy of simultaneously providing a legal alternative while taking steps to halt illegal activities," the committee had reservations about both Ruckus and Audible Magic.
Ruckus is currently only available on Windows, shutting out about 12 percent of the campus that uses alternative operating systems such as Macintosh, according to the faculty senate.
Hanson said Ruckus continues to improve and expand its service and that she expects it to eventually offer a program compatible with Macs.
Audible Magic has the potential to infringe on privacy, the committee determined, but it determined the program does not raise privacy concerns in its current trial form. The issue will have to be examined when the University evaluates the trial in April and determines whether to pay to keep the program.
There is no obligation to continue using either program, Hanson said.
The committee also voiced concern about how the program was adopted. As a relevant body, the committee felt it should have been consulted before Ladner's cabinet agreed to the trial.
Hanson said the committee will likely be involved in evaluating the trial in April.
Rosenblatt told the Faculty Senate at its meeting yesterday that it's important for the University to get student input on technology decisions.
"Student voice is a big issue on campus now that people are talking about," Rosenblatt said, alluding to the recent controversy over the Athletics Department's sudden cut of tennis and golf teams. Many students complained the department didn't communicate with them or ask their opinion of the cuts. "I believe there is going to be a large uproar [from students]"
