Students kicked offline

About 40 students were cut off from the Internet this month after media companies complained to the University that the students had downloaded copyrighted material illegally.

Most notifications of copyright infringement come from music companies or representatives hired by them, according to Lesley Tolman, Tufts' Director of Networks and Telecommunications, although copyright owners of movies and games have also complained. The University has received official notification of copyright infringement from Sony, Warner Brothers and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the main legislation used by copyright holders against Internet piracy, organizations which provide Internet access could be held liable for copyright violation that occurs on their networks _ unless they make sure that pirated material is removed when copyright holders complain.

When it receives a notice of a violation, Tufts restricts the offending students' Internet Protocol (IP) address and does not lift the restriction until the student talks to a University official and the offending files are removed.

According to the University's Information Technology Responsible Use Policy, users must abide by all applicable regulations, which include copyright law. Tufts reserves the right to "temporarily suspend or block access to an account, prior to the initiation or completion of an investigation, when it reasonably appears necessary to do so in order...to protect the University from liability."

The problem is widespread among universities, where fast Internet connections make file sharing zippy and particularly appealing. An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that schools such as Cornell University and University of Maryland, College Park saw increases in copyright infringement violations last fall. Most universities have a procedure similar to Tufts'_ they suspend of network privileges, give students a slap on the wrist lecture and force them to remove the offending file(s) before reactivating their Internet connection.

The policy of restricting Tufts student's IP addresses due to copyright infringement began in the fall of last year after a decision by Tufts Computing and Communication Services (TCCS) and the Dean of Students office, according to Tolman.

Copyright infringement is not the only problem universities have encountered as Internet file-sharing has proliferated. Sharing can also generate so much traffic that it slows down university networks.

Doug Herrick, TCCS's associate director of data network operations explained that many students do not deactivate the file serving option in programs like Kazaa and Morpheus, which means other users can connect to their computers and download files they are sharing. As a result, the volume of outbound traffic on Tufts' network is ten times greater than the volume of inbound traffic.

"This creates bandwidth congestion for everyone on the network," Herrick said.

Some universities have restricted bandwidth to prevent their network from overloading. The University of Pennsylvania capped its outgoing bandwidth last November in an attempt to limit outside users from using the network to download files from Penn students.

Herrick said that Tufts has chosen not to restrict the bandwidth since "this would unfavorably affect the legitimate outgoing traffic that the ResNet sends."

Despite the problems caused by peer-to-peer file sharing technology, universities are reluctant to ban it because they say the technology has legitimate academic uses.