Approach to copyright violators under review

The process for dealing with students who violate the Tufts Information Technology Responsible Use Policy by possessing or distributing copyrighted media over the University network is under review by the Dean of Students Office.

The review of policies and perceived need for stricter enforcement follows a three-year upgrade period that increased the speed of data transfers over the network, heightening file-sharing capabilities.

The legal climate around the issue is quickly changing, which is also prompting the reevaluation, said Lesley Tolman, Director of Networks and Telecommunications for Tufts Computing and Communications Services (TCCS). As the record and movie industries look more closely at students sharing files _ and advance the idea that sharing media illegally is the same as stealing a book from a bookstore _ colleges are being pressured to get their students to stop sharing copyrighted media, ZDNet News reported.

Copyright violations are rampant among college students, who use file-sharing applications to download and upload media. Tufts students are no exception, Tolman said.

Through the Next Generation Network initiative, Tufts has upgraded almost all aspects of its data network over the past three years. New optical networking equipment has allowed for high-speed data transfers on the Medford/Somerville campus and between the Boston and Grafton campuses.

Tufts has also improved the speed of its network by joining Internet2, a high-speed network between more than 200 universities, and upgrading its link to the rest of the Internet.

The time required to download and upload files using the ResNet, the University's residential network, has decreased because of the upgrades. The faster transfer of data has led to a large increase in students' use of peer-to-peer file sharing applications, necessitating tighter enforcement of the Responsible Use Policy.

KaZaA, Morpheus, Limewire, Grokster, WinMX, Bearshare, and Gnucleus are popular applications that allow students to share numerous types of files _ the majority of which are copyrighted _ with other users. When a student installs one of these applications, the default settings typically allow for the sharing of folders on his or her hard drive. The student's computer thus becomes a server from which all of the application's users can download material.

Students using such peer-to-peer applications are essentially distributing copyrighted content, which could pose legal problems for the University if it does not take action to punish violators, Tolman said. Under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), a network provider, in this case the University, can be held liable for the copyrighted content that its users distribute through the network.

Legal action could therefore be taken against Tufts if a student who violates copyright law is not cut off from the network and if the offending content is not removed.

TCCS fields numerous complaints every month from copyright holders about the transfer of copyrighted content from computers on the Tufts network. Under the current policy, Tolman said, when TCCS receives a complaint from a copyright holder about a specific Tufts-owned IP address, the address is matched specific computer.

After the computer's Internet access is disabled, TCCS instructs the user on removing the offending files from the machine and explains how to disable file-sharing users. The user is then allowed back on the ResNet.

Although banning file sharing programs such as Kazaa altogether would solve the University's problem, TCCS does not block students' access to all file-sharing networks because there are legitimate uses for these applications, Tolman said. She mentioned downloading non-copyrighted original compositions, performances by little-known bands, independent films, and original art as examples.

Tolman explained that none of the current solutions for limiting file sharing-applications are able to distinguish between the illegal transfer of copyrighted files and the transfer of legitimate content. The best solution, therefore, is to permit these applications on the Tufts network while blocking specific users who violate copyright laws, she said.

Many students are unhappy with the enforcement of copyright policies. Tufts should inform all incoming freshmen of its network use and copyright policies more explicitly than it currently does, sophomore Brian Kessler said.

An information session about copyrights and file sharing could be held during freshman orientation week, Kessler suggested, or a boldface notice should be included on the network registration page, which every student is required to visit when they connect their computer to the network for the first time.

Kessler was recently blocked from the network due to inadvertent copyright violations, and he was unable to receive the only warning given to him _ an e-mail _ since he could not access the Internet. When he called TCCS, he was given a warning, and told how to remove the offending material and turn off the file sharing option.

TCCS also plans to more rigorously enforce its per-student bandwidth quota to reduce copyright violations among students. The guidelines allow for a reasonable amount of download traffic and 700 megabytes of upload traffic per student per day. Students do not generally exceed this allotted upload limit with normal usage, and most violators are those sharing illegal media files.

With stricter enforcement of the technical rules, Tolman said, network bandwidth hogs will be better controlled, and the 700 megabytes per day upload limit will likely be increased.