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Comments: 135 +-   Ohio University Leads U.S. Colleges in File Sharing on Thursday February 22 2007, @02:57PM

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 22 2007, @02:57PM
from the go-buckeyes dept.
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An anonymous reader writes "The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio University leads the nation in illegal music download notifications, having received 1,287 RIAA complaints since September, with between ten and 15 notices arriving daily. The University is attempting to deflect criticism with a PR piece, saying open networks required for academic freedom make it difficult to stop illegal file sharing. They also point out that the University's architecture makes it much easier to determine who is actually sharing the files. This makes a complaint more likely, as the RIAA knows who to target. "
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  • Related Article (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DanVarga (757629) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:01PM (#18112738) Homepage
    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html [nwsource.com]

    • The Boston Herald covered this a few days ago. While the year is only half over, the number of RIAA complaints is already three times what it was last year [slashdot.org]. It looks like the RIAA got smart and narrowed their indiscriminate abuse of 12 year olds and working moms in housing projects. Now they are indiscriminately abusing University students. The problem for them is that there's no good victim for their harassment, especially when they are wrong so often. The reaction from schools like Purdue is what I'd

  • We take the heat for the good of all pirates! OU is also one of the top party schools in the country. Yes it's awesome.
    • Hell yes it's awesome, you $#@*!!#*@*&%! (Can I swear at you even when I agree?)

      I live about 45 minutes away from Athens and I have to say that it is quite the fun little college town, although since I went to WVU I have to give props to Morgantown WV as an equally fun little college town.

  • makes sense (Score:3, Funny)

    by flynt (248848) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:02PM (#18112754)
    So that's what these kids [ohio.edu] are so happy about.

  • Top 25 schools... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/304595_dow nload22.html [nwsource.com]

    As a student at Northern Illinois, I am pleased to announce that we are number 13 on the list. I also find it very interesting that Purdue takes a "Eh, it's to much work to care" stance: "Some schools aggressively warn students after they receive complaints. Others don't. Purdue, which has received 1,068 complaints so far this year but only 37 in 2006, said it rarely notifies students accused by the RIAA because it's too much trouble to find al

    • Re:Top 25 schools... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lhbtubajon (469284) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:15PM (#18112956)
      The reality is that it is not the responsibility of universities to enforce privately-held copyrights. If the RIAA wants to enforce their copyrights, then they should do the investigation, collect evidence, and file suit.

      Instead, they are attempting to offload this responsibility to the universities, thereby limiting file sharing AND their own expenses to maximize profit.

      Note that an increase of over 2,786% year over year is not explainable by any changes in behavior of the population in question. Instead, it is explainable only by changes in the behavior of the RIAA. The likelihood is that, between 2005 and 2006, the RIAA hired a bunch of writers to fire off 30X more letters than in years' past, so as to manufacture a scary-sounding story that a lazy reporter will swallow.
      • Instead, they are attempting to offload this responsibility to the universities, thereby limiting file sharing AND their own expenses to maximize profit.

        Without access to Universities logs, how is RIAA going to do the investigation? Are universities considered common carriers? Otherwise, I guess it would be easier for RIAA to simply sue the University.
        • As soon as a university takes on the responsibility of an ISP, it arguably becomes liable for copyright infringement across its networks. However, universities are not ISPs, nor do they staff their IT departments such that they could ever reasonably investigate every complaint.

          To your question, how was the RIAA able to send their letters? I assume it was based on some initial investigation that they did. However, if they want to go further and actually lodge a legitimate complaint, they should file suit and
          • But ISPs are common carriers, are they not? That means that they are not responsible for the illegal actions of their users (unless I'm badly mistaken, as IANAL).

            I guess, they don't want to follow the legal avenue because they just want to strongarm the users into a "deal" as they usually do.
    • I also attend NIU. I'm very surprised that we are so high in the list because our "Abuse Investigator" is pretty proactive about shutting down copyright violators - in some cases even overzealous, shutting down people who's games happen to run on a P2P port or a use bittorrent to download patches.
  • Ohio State has by far more file traders than Ohio University, the network just hides identities better, etc. Ohio U is dinky compared to OSU, and having graduated from OSU, I can tell you for a fact that no school has the internet traffic of OSU. I heard as an undergrad that the campus connections alone, not including the dorms,etc. but just the campus buildings, were pulling a constant 50-60 megs.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by krotkruton (967718)
      After a quick search, OSU has roughly 9000 students (2005 estimate) in on-campus housing while OU has 7800 (from their housing page, not sure when it was last updated). I don't know how their networks work, but generally you are only part of the university's network if you are on-campus, so their networks have a pretty similar capacity. It appears that OSU's size isn't really relevant in this article because the number of people are on the network are close to the same. Smaller schools generally have a h
  • Anyone who knows OU's reputation would not find this surprising at all. You have to have good music for all of those parties.

  • Not something to be proud of (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rdwald (831442) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:09PM (#18112876)
    They're not the university with the most file sharers...they're the university with the most file sharers WHO GOT CAUGHT. The smart thing to do is ensure that most file sharing is within the university, not with outside sources, to minimize exposure to the ??AA. If you're getting caught, you're doing it wrong.
    • They're not the university with the most file sharers...they're the university with the most file sharers WHO GOT CAUGHT. The smart thing to do is ensure that most file sharing is within the university, not with outside sources, to minimize exposure to the ??AA. If you're getting caught, you're doing it wrong.

      I think that the key here is that their network is conducive, basically, to getting caught.

      They don't give any details in the PR puff-piece that's linked from the Slashdot blurb, but it sounds like the

  • Information Sharing is part of Learning (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:13PM (#18112918)
    While the MAFIAA would like to rewind time before the Internet, people generally have the desire to share information freely.

    Kid: how come we stopped singing happy birthday?
    Mom: because Time-Warner "owns" the rights to that, and we don't want to get on the MAFIAA hit list. The cost is far greater than a usual birthday celebration. And, whats wrong with "Good birthday to you"?

    Kid: why is the sky blue
    Dad: you know, many natural processes can now be patented, copyrighted and generally "owned". My company, SkyTech is patenting that atmospheric prism effect, so I cannot discuss that without revealing trade secrets, and ongoing patented research. Ask your mother.

  • My alma mater [unl.edu] is third in RIAA notices; after so many years of football dominance, it's nice to be in the top 5 of something again. Like Ohio University, the campus network at UNL makes it relatively easy to associate people with IPs.

    (On a related note, the 100-person computer science/business honors program I was in [unl.edu] was, at one time, using something in the area of 25% of the student housing network bandwidth; note that this particular network has about 5,000 users.)

    • I read about this in the paper [journalstar.com] this morning. Interestingly, in a sidebar they interview a student from Wesleyan (a neighboring school), who came onto campus specifically to download music, because they have all the popular download sites blocked at her school. I wonder if "visiting" student contribute in any meaningful way to UNL's stats?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by HTH NE1 (675604)
      I know that UNL tracks what MAC addresses use which IP addresses and for how long. They use it to maintain the DHCP server and identify machines that are trying to use the same IP address or using IPs that they aren't allowed to use (anything over 199 in the last octet is reserved in all subnets). Troublemakers get their MAC addresses banned, which works against those who don't know how to change them. (They've had students buying new network cards to get past the blocks.) I'd expect they've enhanced it

  • Open Networks for Academic Freedom? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by susano_otter (123650) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:20PM (#18113030) Homepage
    So... with OU students benefiting so much from all this Academic Freedom, they must lead U.S. Colleges in academic excellence too, right?
    • Well, off the top of my head, their Journalism department is very well known and their CS dept is pretty well known. I believe they're also fairly well known for their Chem dept as well.

      Disclaimer: I'm an alumnus.
  • Cuz im going back to college !!!

    Seriously though, must be a nice, liberty-loving place.

  • RIAA actions remind me of a quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sponge Bath (413667) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:27PM (#18113130)

    The quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off:

    Something is going on, and I'm going to find out what it is.
    I'm going to catch this kid and put a dent in his future.
    Years from now, when he looks back
    on the ruin his life has become...
    he will remember Edward Rooney (err, RIAA).

  • List (Score:5, Informative)

    by theheff (894014) on Thursday February 22 2007, @03:31PM (#18113178) Homepage
    Here's the complete list of colleges receiving RIAA notices-

    http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?Ar ticleID=6876 [eschoolnews.com]

  • that my Alma Mater was #3 on the list and that my local university is #10 on the list.

    Perhaps there's still hope in the American university system after all..

  • There's nothing to do in Athens, Ohio except drink and screw (and apparently download every byte on the Net). It's a liberal arts school whose student body is at best of modest means. Most of the OU grads I've known have been office assistants, who no doubt have transported their surfing skills to the workplace. Mark me down for flamebait if you must, but this headline should be filed with other 'stunning' headlines like "GW Bush dumb", "Britney Spears flakes out again", and "Vista unsecure after all".
    • You fogot this alumnus, Kamil Idris, current Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). You think he tipped off the RIAA?
      • Your parent is exhibiting what seems to be the sterotypical whining of an OSU person. OSU has this hate thing for OU and just can't seem to get past it. The same can be said for Miami Oxford.

        There are a whole lot of people who went to OU that did not simply get a job as an office assistant afterward. The grandparent needs to pull his head out of his rear.

        We're actually well known for journalism, pretty well known for CS (and CMU hates us becuase we give them a serious run for their money in competitions)
        • What do my parents have to do with anything? They didn't even go to college. Hell, my dad didn't even finish high school.

          Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.


          Sylar, is that you?

    • Wrong University. Ohio University != THE Ohio State University.
      The Bobcats (OU) only wish they were as awesome as Buckeyes (OSU).
    • HAHAHA, so Florida will actually be playing OU, who is in a lower ranking tournament, at a bowl game next year instead of OSU? How sad. Have a little confidence that you won't be so bad you drop in tournament at least...
      • It wasn't modded +5 funny because it was just wrong. As 10000 comments above me state, the article is talking about OU not OSU...
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