MPAA Infiltrating Campus Nets with Software 536
unassimilatible writes "CNet is reporting that the MPAA is starting to infiltrate college campuses with automated anti-piracy software. Known as the Automated Copyright Notice System (ACNS), the technology promises to make copyright enforcement easier on peer-to-peer networks, saving schools and Internet service providers (ISPs) time and money. ACNS allows them to automatically restrict or cut off Internet access for alleged infringers on notice from a record label or movie studio. Though not specifically ACNS, a similar system is set to go live Monday at the University of California at Los Angeles, one of the nation's largest universities with 37,500 students. UCLA's Copyright Policy page makes no reference of this system being implemented."
OS SW on Cisco HW? (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article:
And:
Sounds like a case of buzzworditus... can one even legally install Open Source software on Cisco harware? I mean, besides the Open Source stuff that Cisco has pirated.
obsession with downloads not in RIAA best interest (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering that there are only five or so corporations that 'own' the world's commercial cultural product, it's not like someone else is going to get the money if someone buys record X while someone else downloads record Y. If there were still hundreds of independent record companies, then this mentality would be reasonable. But there's not. And the media executives should grow out of the 'hustler' mentality that was the way the music business used to work when they were coming up through the ranks. Things are different now.
What the RIAA/MPAA doesn't seem to realize is that their biggest long-term problem is not that people will 'steal' their product, it's that people will become so uninterested in their product that they won't be able to give it away even if they tried. Creating an atmosphere where consumers are threatened with prison and property confiscation for listening to RIAA product will go a long way to creating a subliminal distrust of commercial music. Eventually people will go out of their way to avoid exposure to RIAA product simply to avoid the possibility of arbitrary legal harassment.
When the RIAA customers are gone, it will be really difficult to get them back. Because the techniques that they are employing now will destroy any trust that people have in the RIAA. Trust in this case meaning that people believe that what the RIAA say's is legal use, will actually be legal use.
As far as the MPAA product is concerned, it is absurd to harass downloaders. They need to cut their costs for film production and promotion. Then they need to cut the admission prices for going to the films in theatres. Few people will download a 1 gigabyte movie when they can pay $2 to see it in a safe, comfortable theatre with quality projection and large screen.
An example of this is the Valley Theatre in Beaverton Oregon (a suburb of Portland). Built in the 1960s, they now show second-run features on a giant 50 foot screen and have started a 20 admissions for $20 pricing policy with $3 for single standard admission. Who wants to spend 10 hours downloading a DivX of LOTR when you can see it on a big screen for a dollar?
All the RIAA/MPAA problems have reasonable solutions. Their big problem is that they're not reasonable people.
Re:obsession with downloads not in RIAA best inter (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh Ohhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Offended (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Offended (Score:5, Funny)
Apologies, we meant the other one (Score:5, Funny)
Terribly sorry. We were talking about the other grandmother on Slashdot.
Slashdot incompetency test (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Offended (Score:3, Insightful)
ps. I'm a grandfather too... became one at the sprightly age of 46... nothing wrong with that age... divide it by two and see how old I was when I became a father... 23... so the lady you're disparaging was a perfectly respectable age herself when she first became a mother...
now if we were great-grandparents in our late 40's...
Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they care more about legal threats from multi-billion dollar megacorps than they do about Joe Freshman's "right" to illegally rip the latest Britney album?
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Insightful)
I have never heard of a university or any entity that provides an internet connection to be responsible for the upload/download of any content by a user or group of users. Maybe provide user information from logfiles, but thats it.
Re:Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps, but it doesn't protect them from litigation, or the threat of being sued, nor the bad publicity thereof.
Ask a lawyer. A friend of mine is a professional litigator, and I found out that most lawsuits are resolved before ever going to court because it's cheaper to end the claim in the discovery and litigation phase than it is to take it into court. It's not only the cost of the plaintiff's lawyers, but the defendant has to pay their own lawyers to do all sorts of legal hooha behind the scenes, as well. And those lawyer's ain't cheap either - if you've got cheap lawyers, you may get cheap (inadequate) defense. Basically, you have to hire as much lawyer as you can afford. If it means swatting a gnat with a nuclear missile, then at least you're protected when some other gnat has it's own nuclear missile.
In the end, it's probably easier to just go along with it, than it is to fight it. Remember, right and wrong have no place in the modern American courtroom.
(I'm not saying that this is right, just that it is what is.)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:5, Funny)
Professional litigators have friends? ;-)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, I'm sold! And here's why:
1. Because I'm sure most university admins would love to have their network bogged down by music streams flowing hither and yon on the campus. Nobody needs
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Insightful)
Bias (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bias (Score:4, Insightful)
1) MPAA
2) Do you fear riAA or mpAA in .uk?
Choice? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bias (Score:3, Insightful)
Should be easy for MPAA to do this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Very crafty....
Re:Should be easy for MPAA to do this... (Score:3, Interesting)
IANAL, but I don't think it's the universities' responsibility to keep their students from breaking the law, meaning that the RIAA couldn't prosecute the universities (and win) anyway.
Re:Should be easy for MPAA to do this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cunning, maybe, but not very smart. Why would the universities, as content providers, be any more liable for students' copyright infringement than any other ISP?
Re:Should be easy for MPAA to do this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Should be easy for MPAA to do this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Schools are also presently paying to get packet-shaping devices to try to slow/block P2P shares because they get in the way of other users, or would require the school to get more overall bandwidth. The RIAA is of course offering this service for free.
Schools are buying packet-shapers to manage the traffic level associated with P2P. The RIAA is offering them content-based filtering, which could be argued to remove what little common carrier status still exists for the School-cum-ISP.
Due Diligence? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Due Diligence? (Score:2)
Re:Due Diligence? (Score:3, Informative)
well... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:well... (Score:2)
Re:well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Problem with that is it might infringe on legitimate traffic as well. For example, not all P2P sharing is of copyrighted music and files. This seems to filter though, seeking only copyright material as opposed to stopping P2P traffic.
In this case it all depends on the implentation. As a sys admin I applaud the better security this promises (better trojan and virus policing etc). However this
Re:well... (Score:5, Interesting)
If you are FORCED to live in a dorm, and your ONLY internet access is available through the campus network (due to the school's monopoly), and you are the one paying for this internet connection anyway (it is included with your outragous dorm fees), then you should be able to do whatever you damn well please with your net connection, including entertainment. Computer labs could be used for education only, but the only connection you are allowed to have to your own home is yours and not the school's. Nice troll, though.
Nope (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:well... (Score:3, Informative)
Which you pay for because most universities require freshmen to live in the dorms for their first year. You might have a valid point if freshmen could live in apartments, but they can't, so you don't. A university is a public institution (except for private ones, of course), so they can't pull the standard private company crap of forcing you to sign your rights away just to go there. They are compelled to respect students'
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Emotive words in writeup??? (Score:5, Insightful)
ok so there are legal uses of file sharing software, but those who distribute material that isn't legal haven't got a leg to stand on... and deserve everything that gets thrown at them...
Re:Emotive words in writeup??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Overzealous IP owners (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I did read the Harvard study and I found it fascinating. But I suppose that is part of my point... we could get into a he-said/she-said pissing match about how much it hurts sales, what the net effect is, etc. But that's entirely incidental, isn't it? There's a number of different ways you could spin this all. You could point out that people have a fairly fixed amount that they are willing to budget for entertainment. If they find tracks that they really want from a certain
Re:Overzealous IP owners (Score:3, Insightful)
Here, you and I couldn't agree more. I think the lengths to which the RIAA and MPAA have gone to track and blackmail people accused of violating copyright is alarming...and I fear the worst is yet to come.
I think it is fair to say that wholesale, widespread theft (sharing without the express consent of the original copyright holder, whatever you want to call it) of a product might c
How is this any different... (Score:2, Insightful)
At least the MPAA is targeting the right people. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:At least the MPAA is targeting the right people (Score:3, Informative)
Bring on the sheep... (Score:5, Insightful)
These Universities need to tell them to piss off. They're just gonna get it even worse once anonymous P2P hits the masses.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bring on the sheep... (Score:4, Funny)
finkployd was summarily executed after a copyright infringement case.
Re:Bring on the sheep... (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF
Shouldnt that be the other way around - they prove me wrong THEN punish me... Or is that whacked out hippy speak these days??
anonymous P2P has one problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Since they cant monitor who is doing what for verification of 'acceptable content', the ports just get closed at the firewall for everyone.
If you move ports to something thats harder to block ( like port 80 for example ), they just look for above average bandwidth use to 'non official hosts', and cut their MAC address
Re:Bring on the sheep... (Score:3, Insightful)
For the American Entertainment Monolith to now say that fair's fair and everybody's got to pay up is the height of hypocrisy and gall... I'll pay them for all the crappy mp3's I dowloaded and erased (as
and if I download music I already own ? (Score:5, Insightful)
1. If I'm downloading copies of song which I already own on CD, then I'm not infringing, am I? Maybe I'm just too lazy to rip my own disks. I can think of other reasons why I might do that.
2. So if a high percentage (or even not so high percentage) of P2P users are downloading legitimate files, i.e. things they own or are otherwise allowed to access, doesn't this make it darn near impossible for the MPAA/RIAA/NSA/CIA/FBI to decide whose infringing and who is not ?
So basically we're back to the guilty and proven innocent mindset which is becoming all-too-common in the Corporate States of America (TM)
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:3, Interesting)
1. If I'm downloading copies of song which I already own on CD, then I'm not infringing, am I? Maybe I'm just too lazy to rip my own disks. I can think of other reasons why I might do that.
I don't recal where I heard it, so I might be wrong, but I think there's some law somewhere that says you do not have the right to change the format of media you own. So if you have a CD and you make a copy of that CD for backup purposes then it's legal. But if you have a CD and you rip it to MP3s, the format has cha
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not a lawyer.
But I know that you're wrong. "Format shifting" is Fair Use--so long as you don't share it. If it wasn't, how would you ever legally put MP3s on your PC?
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:3, Interesting)
In the late 70's and early 80's cassette recorders were ILLEGAL to own in america because the RIAA was convinced it would be out of business within months. Sound familiar?
Cassette recorders are legal today due to a freaking ACT OF CONGRESS because enough people wrote their legislators wondering why they couldn't make their friends mixtapes. In fact i believe it was even called the "mixtape law". (I'd like to provide a link but I'm at work and the firewalls don't like the pages
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:3, Funny)
Hey! So you just automatically assume I'm a "young whippersnapper" who doesn't know anything because of one little comment? Everybody's always making assumptions around here and I'm sick of it.
...BTW, what's an LP?
;)
Re:and if I download music I already own ? (Score:3, Informative)
Gray area for you because this kind of case really hasn't made it to the courts... however, the person you're downloading from is definitely in trouble. MP3.com's "locker" service where they allowed people to stream MP3.com's copy of a song after proving that they owned a CD with the song on it was what ended up bringing d
Hmm... (Score:2, Insightful)
Several studios and record labels, including Universal Music Group, have begun to standardize the tags at the bottom of their takedown notices into XML, code that allows data to be used seamlessly in various contexts. The digital tags contain the name of the copyrighted material that's been comprised, the copyright holder's name, date and time stamp, and the Internet Protocol address of the infringer. Receipt of this tag triggers the internal notification process at a university or ISP u
My experience (Score:5, Interesting)
Subject: Unauthorized Distribution of Copyrighted Motion Pictures
(Reference#: xxxxxx)
MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.
15503 VENTURA BOULEVARD
ENCINO, CALIFORNIA 91436
UNITED STATES
Anti-Piracy Operations
PHONE: (818) 728 - 8127
Email: MPAA@copyright.org
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Name: XXX XXXX
E-mail: xxx@xxx
ISP: xxx University
Via Fax/Email
RE: Unauthorized Distribution of Copyrighted Motion Pictures
MPA Case Name: directconnect://xxx:ipaddr/
Reference#: 2937735
Date of Infringement: 11/12/2003 2:28:05 PM GMT
Dear
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) represents the following motion picture production and distribution companies:
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Paramount Pictures Corporation
TriStar Pictures, Inc.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
United Artists Pictures, Inc.
United Artists Corporation
Universal City Studios, LLLP
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
We have received information that an individual has utilized the IP address, xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, at the above noted date and time to offer downloads of copyrighted motion picture(s) through a "peer-to-peer" service, including such title(s) as:
Chicago
The distribution of unauthorized copies of copyrighted motion pictures constitutes copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, Title 17 United States Code Section 106(3). This conduct may also violate the laws of other countries, international law, and/or treaty obligations.
Since you own this IP address, we request that you immediately do the following:
1. Disable access to the individual who has engaged in the conduct described above, and;
2. Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse Policy/Terms of Service Agreement.
On behalf of the respective owners of the exclusive rights to the copyrighted material at issue in this notice, we hereby state, pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Title 17 United States Code Section 512, that the information in this notification is accurate and that we have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owners, their respective agents, or the law.
Also pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we hereby state, under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of the owners of the exclusive rights being infringed as set forth in this notification.
Please contact us at the above listed address or by replying to this email should you have any questions. Kindly include the above noted Reference # in the subject line of all email correspondence.
We thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Your prompt response is requested.
Respectfully,
Thomas Temple
Director
Worldwide Internet Enforcement
Re:My experience (Score:2)
Re:My experience (Score:5, Funny)
You're lucky you didn't get nailed for terrrorism.
Worldwide Internet Enforcement (Score:2)
Director
Worldwide Internet Enforcement"
Worldwide Internet Enforcement??? Who does this guy think he is??? Next think you know he'll say he works for the organization that wons the internet.
Infiltrate college campuses (Score:3, Funny)
This will very likely be hard to fight legally (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, you could always ssl all of your connections. Hmmm...that could get ugly quickly. I wonder how that would stack up against the DMCA?
Can these people screw up any worse? (Score:2)
When the MPAA hits the ground, its going to make a crater THIS BIG.
No notice on the UCLA Copyright page? (Score:5, Informative)
In fact, UCLA has even published a letter to their students directly addressing file-sharing [ucla.edu] which states We are writing to alert the campus community - students, faculty and staff - to the personal risks involved with illegal file-sharing. It is important that you understand these risks, not only because of the possibility of disciplinary action, but also to protect yourself against criminal prosecution and the initiation of civil litigation by copyright holders. We would like you to be very aware that initiation of legal action by copyright holders is becoming more of a reality every day..
With ample notification of monitoring and a termination policy in place, why should UCLA need to explicitly state that they are turning on a new monitoring system any more than they would notify students that their P2P bandwidth was being throttled by something like Packetshaper?
What about non-MPAA (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why we (used to) have a thing called due-process, to keep private entities from enforcing what they consider the law. But we all know due-process doesn't contribute to election campaigns.
Re:What about non-MPAA (Score:4, Insightful)
simple to defeat (Score:3, Interesting)
hell simply rot-13 the entire mp3 file and they cant detect squat.
what will be the best trick is for people to set up garbage throwers to make the damned thing give so many false positives that it is deemed useless...
Re:simple to defeat (Score:3, Interesting)
a) Catalogs available file names and compares with list of copyrighted works
b) Downloads part or all of a file and identifies using known file fingerprint or hash
c) Searches files for embedded copyright information or digital watermarks
If it only does (a), then it is relatively easy to defeat and once people are wise to it they wont get caught. If it does (b), then it is nescessary to appl
Computing Center (Score:2, Interesting)
Installing and managing such a system is just more work for them. Lesser reasons, such as added network instability, security issues(who stops the MPA
Oh, cool! (Score:5, Interesting)
Not long, I think.
Mistakes (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically, my friend had downloaded one of those 2 hour trailer loops thinking it was a movie, then forgot to delete it after he realized it was not the movie. The company sent him and e-mail, having looked at the title and not the content. He wrote them a pretty mean e-mail back.
So, how does the software identify copyrighted music on P2P? Presumably it could do an MD5 hash against a master, but that would vary if, say, some time was cut off the end. They couldn't possibly account for all possible variations on a file. They could check ID5 information that is provided through the P2P metadata, but that can be wrong frequently. Finally, they can check the file name. But what if I took a liking to misnaming some of my own music?
Without downloading the song and making an aural comparison (there is technology available that could discern, as AT&T Wireless is apparently using it, as was reported on
Automated copyright enforcement, what's next? (Score:4, Interesting)
Vehicles have been equipped with "black box" devices, recording operations without the driver's knowledge or consent.
Eavesdropping equipment has also been installed in new vehicles, giving the ability to listen in on the occupants at any time.
Law enforcement uses special equipment to "see through" walls and observe the occupants inside a building, without a warrant because it's observable from the street.
I started this post attempting to be sarcastic, but every terrifying example of surveillance I could come up with has already been implemented.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
Re:Automated copyright enforcement, what's next? (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem occurs when automated computer systems get involved, where it not only becomes possible, but efficient to monitor a very large percentage of the population for
Lusers get what they deserve (Score:5, Insightful)
As one who has also run a streaming media server since 2000, has downloaded mp3 since 1996, and ftp'd media around since 1992, all I can say is you people are idiots if you keep getting caught, and you're making my job hard, and I have no problem with laying the smack down.
Figure out how to stay under the radar, AOL'ers and undergrads. That way everybody's happy. Your problem is you've had p2p file sharing handed to you on a platter since Napster and you expect it like a right.
Kick ass! (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally, they'd be able to cut off the bandwidth caps and packetshapers. Finally, I'd be able to install Gentoo, download a free SHN-encoded album from archive.org, or grab the next OpenCD without waking up the next morning to a disabled network jack and having to bitch and moan until it's reopenned. Finally, I'd have a solid enough connection to get a decent round of UT2k3 in after class.
Allowing network use policies to be enforced in a content-specific rather than cutting off legitimate uses of big chunks of bandwidth is a terrific idea.
There are legal uses (Score:2, Interesting)
It should be the school's responsibility (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see what this means in minus-Internet terms:
Let's say a school receives a complaint from the copyright holders that students are videotaping movies off the screen during routine movie shows in student theaters.
Would it be right for the school to let the copyright holder send goons over to monitor the theaters with "anti-piracy" equipment and haul off offenders and slap him with a huge prison/fine sentence?
Or would it be more prudent for the school to tell the copyright holders to fsck off and let them handle the situation on their own - and suspend the student or dole out a more suitable sentence - according to the school policies?
This move by the MPAA stinks of highhandedness and interference with the school's internal matters - in this case - usage of the school network against Usage Policies.
AFAIK most schools have very formal and complete network (or general campus facilities) usage policies which detail the punishments for misusing them. Why do we need MPAA and other corporate entities to police the campus when the school and campus law enforcement have been doing it very efficiently for the past few decades? Assholes (*)
stupid question (Score:2)
Besides looking for traffic on certain ports, how could a program outside of my computer on a school network tell what I am downloading?
Occasionally I use a program such as "Ares" to download a specific song or songs, because I like to make mix CD's out of music I already own, without having to rip all of my music to mp3 then burning it back to CD so I can listen to it in my car. I was under the impression that this was not illegal, since I already own it.
I also have been using
This software sounds great (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the mindframe that is sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
But this attitude of "War on P2P" is a failure: it's a failure because framing the discussion in terms of right and wrong misses the point, it's a failure because it will alienate a generation of consumers and artists, and it's a failure because it will get in the way of developing long-term business models based more accurately on what people actually want and are willing to pay for.
It's impossible to force people - through policing, through DRM, through marketing - to pay for something they can get for free. I can't think of any examples where this has worked. It's like the many laws that try to mandate what people can do in private (sex, drugs, rock'n roll). The laws sound fine, but they fail.
The movie industry (like the music industry) must move to models of higher-volume, lower prices, and (most importantly) much lower internal costs. There is no reason why this business should have fatter profit margins than - say - retailing.
The media industries will say that the risk and cost of promoting unknown artists or failed movies means they need fat profits on successful ones. But this is a circular argument: using the new distribution and promotion models that the Internet affords makes it _extremely_ cheap to produce and promote new talent.
Anyhow, the pattern is classic: the industry will scream and kick, blackmail and sue, get government and industry support, and finally collapse as new young rivals (probably from other countries where vested interests form less of a barrier) storm the market with products that the consumer _really_ wants.
Re:It's the mindframe that is sad... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm. Last week I was over at my local computer store and I bought this nifty product called Mandrake Linux. Some idiot tried to convince me that I could download the thing for free off the internet. What an idiot. He obviously had some kind of grudge against the store.
BOFH (Score:3, Funny)
Now all students can be guilty without a trial (Score:5, Insightful)
It's nice to see no trial is necessary to make every student guilty. Guess that constitution thing doesn't apply unless your a corporate executive.
Re:Now all students can be guilty without a trial (Score:3, Interesting)
have you tried applying for jobs lately? more and more companies require a drug test. another case of 'we think you're guilty; prove us wrong and we'll hire you'.
sigh.
Sorority girls beware (Score:5, Funny)
Enter one Melvin P. Thornowsky, CS major, geek with taped glasses and pants a little tight around the armpits. Of course, our hero has a HUGE crush on Miss Bambi Vanderbilt, sophomore member of the local Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Melvin finally gets the nerve up to ask the beautiful, yet not all that smart Bambi out. Of course, he goes down in flames.
As revenge Melvin hacks Bambi's brand new laptop that her Daddy bought her and adds a nice pirated copy of "Flesh Gordon". Next time she hooks up to the campus network to check Cosmopolitan Online the MPAA Storm Troopers show up and take her to Jail. The whole Vanderbilt family is embarrassed, Bambi is disinherited and has to move in with Rocko, her secret boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks.
MPAA - ruining lives one campus at a time.
"ACNS is an open-source, royalty-free system" (Score:5, Interesting)
Another biased spin on piracy (Score:5, Interesting)
College students don't have the money in four years to outright buy new car that I have to get a loan for of many years. Piracy is an opentunistic act of copyright infringement, not theft. A college student with several thousand MP3's is not the theft of several thousand dollars of original recordings. They are cheap copies, not originals taken from rightful owners. Killing piracy of 1,000 tunes does not create the sales of 1,000 tunes at a buck each or create 1000 tunes now on the store shelves that weren't there for sale before. I doubt no matter how many copies iTunes sells of any song, they will have a sellout. Cost of duplication is cheap. The spin folks and the marketing folks both know this but are in denial.
Other than the spin on the financial loss, the article was interesting in the war on piracy.
I personaly buy less CD's now because I'm afraid of getting a non-returnable deliberatly defective disk. I look for the Compact Disk logo for compatibility with my rip-mix-burn setup and portable devices. There are very few CD's anymore with the Compact Disk logo. It makes shopping for a CD like panning for gold. There is lots of shiny stuff out there, but finding the real thing is getting harder as the supply dwindles. I now visit the DVD section instead of the useless CD section. It's money better spent.
I'm currently enjoying Old Time radio which is now in the public domain. It's free.
A month or two.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Once the worm is released that jumps from computer to computer, using the MPAA software to disable it (after spreading of course) the university admins will have to weigh the cost of fixing all the computers against hiring a lawyer to fight the MPAA.
Copyright Self Help? (Score:3, Insightful)
Even under UCITA, it required express consent by both sides. End users would have to agree to this remedy (which I suppose won't be hard in the university situation - because the campus ISP is the only game in town). If that happened, the act would authorize the content owning company to remotely shut you down, to prevent you from infringing. The idea was to let software vendors shut down dead beat software buyers who didn't pay up. Nobody seemed to like it (self help thankfully isn't too popular in general).
Anyway - long story short, since most, if not all states expressly rejected this kind of industry self help - I wouldn't be surprised if a court took that to mean that the legislatures are not exactly on the self-help bandwagon (yet).
That's how I'd fight this.
A Suggestion for Universities. (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems simple to me. Reports indicate that there is Kazaa activity on Port 123, you turn off that LAN port. The user no longer has LAN access, and must call someone to get it fixed. At this point, they're reminded that P2P activity is prohibited by university policy. This is their first warning. The next time they're caught, they'll have their port shut down for a month, and the third offense will have their port turned off permanently.
If universities feel they have to play hardball in this area, doesn't this seem like a more logical, and wise way for them to do it, opposed to allowing someone else into their network, who has an agenda that doesn't match that of the university?
(And on a side note, many universities have grant money for doing military research. I'm certain that the DOD would not apprecaite the *AA having any sort of 'monitoring' going on of potentially sensitive research data that might be travelling on the university network.)
..AA calling the shots at my university? Bullshit. (Score:3, Insightful)
The second that my university decides that the RIAA and the MPAA should be administering the network to decide if any violations are made, is the second I transfer to another university.
I don't pay a huge "technology fee" just to have the wolves guarding the hen house. The MPAA and RIAA are a modern mafia, complete with government support.
Attention Universities: Some of you should realize that there is a market for a bastion of freedom. I'd gladly pay a legal fee in my student fees/tuition if it meant I could be protected from fucking cartels like the RIAA and bullshit legislation like the DMCA.
Yeah, I can see it now (Score:5, Interesting)
Student: Seems my Internet is down.
UCLA Helpdesk: Room?
Student: 201
UCLA Helpdesk: Hmm, lemme have a look.
UCLA Helpdesk: Ah, yeah, says here that Jack's Car Shop's FAC-U system has detected a copyright infringment on your computer.
Student: What? Jack's Car Shop?
UCLA Helpdesk: Uhuh
Student: So what's this FAC-U thing?
UCLA Helpdesk: Friendly Automated Copyright-infringment Underpants.
Student: Ex-abuse-me?
UCLA Helpdesk: Just an underpants targetting system that checks for copyright infringement.
Student: So what kinda copyright of Jack's Car Shop am I violating?!
UCLA Helpdesk: Uh, I dunno. Don't worry, an expert from Jack's Car Shop will soon be over to have a look at your computer.
Student: What's he gonna do?
UCLA Helpdesk: They usually come with a USB key and need a little time alone with your computer.
UCLA Helpdesk: You probably got nothing to worry about.
Student: WTF? That's crazy. Are there any other companies that have such systems running here?
UCLA Helpdesk: Doh, are you kidding me? Of course! Every company that owns intellectual property has one.
Student: So Jack's Car Shop has intellectual property?
UCLA Helpdesk: That's what he says.
Student: And you just take his word?
UCLA Helpdesk: Listen son, these systems seem to be working quite well, at the moment we have 2,314 infringments pending.
Student: Dude, there's only 2,315 students here.
UCLA Helpdesk: Yeah that's right, the other guy doesn't have a computer.
Solution: (Score:3, Informative)
Thus, if anyone tells you that you've been sharing, tell them that it's illegal for anyone to decrypt your digital transmissions without your permission. If anything, it's a perfect way to demonstrate what a bunch of bulls*it the DMCA is.
If someone with a pair actually does go to court, they can simply point out that the (RI || MP) AA were breaking the law and that their case is therefore null and void. And you say that no good can come of it?
Hateful responses? Death threats? Please direct all of them to my image consultants, the RIAA
Re:Choice Quote (Score:2)
Wrong article... (Score:2)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Funny)
2 points.
If you are luser [ding!] enough to run something as lame as Winblows [ding!] for your P2P trawling, you deserve whatever happens to you.
2 more points.
Me and my linux boxen [ding!] [ding!] will be happily working with no interruption.
Boxen! That's worth double.
Later on, M$ [ding!] suckas!
7 points total. Well done.
Re:My own - WMA or AAC (Score:2, Insightful)
In any event, I don't think they're looking at drive contents as much as they're looking for file sharing behavior. My guess is that you could still sneaker-net a CD-R of mp3s to your buddies on campus.
Re:The MPAA Sucks. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The Way It Is (Score:3, Interesting)