Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
A group of Student Government officers met with university officials last week to discuss how the RIAA is tracking students and what the university can do to stop illegal file sharing. The RIAA sent an additional round of letters to students in recent weeks, including 32 to the University of Maine System.
UMaine is directly involved in the process of finding students who have been accused by the RIAA of illegal downloading and file-sharing. UMaine has a responsibility to alert students who have been tagged by the recording industry, but is not responsible for identifying those students.
Most of the time, students are notified in the form of “takedown” letters, which tell students that they have been caught file-sharing. In 2006, more than 800 of these letters were sent, according to University of Maine System Counsel Kelley Wiltbank. If students are caught downloading illegally again, the next step is a litigation notice.
“We don’t enjoy being warrant officers for the RIAA,” said System Chief Information Officer for UMaine Ralph Caruso, “but by not advising students, we are being even less helpful.”
Last semester, the General Student Senate sent a recommendation to the university that students’ IP addresses be reset every month in order to prevent the RIAA from tracking what students are doing. Vice President of Student Entertainment Derek Mitchell said the idea has been used successfully at the University of Nebraska.
Wiltbank said such a solution presented an ethical dilemma. “Changing our method to assist in illegal downloading violates professional ethics – we’ll defend students who are in trouble, but we won’t help them break the law.”
Alternative methods of legal downloading were discussed at the meeting, including “Rukus.” At rukus.com, college students can sign up to listen to any music they want for free. The Web site is ad-supported and the music cannot be downloaded unless the student buys a monthly subscription.
“That means you can listen to it for free online from your computer, but cannot take it off your computer. So it’s not a perfect solution – definitely not a way to stock your iPod – but it does offer all the music you want, free of charge,” said Mitchell.
Another solution was proposed by Student Body President Steve Moran. All students are required to sign an Acceptable Use Policy for Internet access at the beginning of the fall semester. Moran suggested that a second screen could be added that would pop up before the policy, outlining the consequences for students who are caught downloading illegally.
“Students aren’t stupid – if you give them the facts, they’ll listen,” said Gimbala Sankare, President of the Class of 2010.
In the meantime, media attention has been given to students who have had to pay money to the RIAA in settlement fees. The last group of 10 students charged with illegal file-sharing took their case to court, hoping to get the charges dismissed. The magistrate judge decided in favor of the RIAA, and now it will be several more months of legal processing before the students can appeal the judge’s recommendation to a higher court.
“We do care about kids who get caught,” said Wiltbank. “We’ve ID’d attorneys for them to go to, pointed them in the right direction.” However, the decision to share files ultimately rests in the hands of students, and there is little UMaine officials can do to prevent that besides issue “takedowns.”
