[Infowarrior] - Ohio University Caves to RIAA: Bans P2P

[Richard Forno]

Ohio University Bans P2P
http://newteevee.com/2007/04/28/ohio-university-bans-p2p/

Ohio University announced this week that they are completely banning all
file sharing on campus. Violators will get their Internet access cut off and
possibly face disciplinary action. Ohio University previously made headlines
for being the school with the highest number of music piracy complaints in
the country.

The problem of file sharing on campus is hardly new. Ever since Napster,
administrators have tried to stop the swapping with various technical
roadblocks. P2P enthusiasts usually react with protest, referring to that
Ubuntu ISO they really, really need to get via BitTorrent. Wink Wink, nudge
nudge.

But nowadays P2P isn¹t just about The Pirate Bay anymore. There are major
motion pictures for sale on BitTorrent.com, there are Showtime downloads on
the Azureus-powered Vuze.com, and then there is Joost. Ohio University¹s
Anti-P2P policy could spell trouble for all of them ­ and in turn put the
school in an awkward position.

Ohio University¹s list of programs that will get you in trouble reads like a
Who¹s Who of the file sharing world:

    ³Ares, Azureus, BitComet, BitLord, BitTornado, BitTorrent, FlashGet,
Gnutella, KaZaA, LimeWire, Morpheus, Shareaza, uTorrent.²

Wide-ranging blocks like these are usually done on a protocol level.
Specialized applications analyze the nature of each packet flowing through
the local network ­ and ring the alarm bell as soon as something looks like
Bittorrent or Gnutella. This means that OU students shouldn¹t use the
Democracy Player / Miro, Pando or Allpeers either, since all of them are
based on the Bittorrent protocol.

Ohio University didn¹t respond in time to clarify whether they will block
Joost as well, but the wording of their file sharing advisory makes it clear
that you probably don¹t even want to try:

    ³Although P2P file-sharing can sometimes be used for legitimate reasons,
any use of P2P software on the campus network may result in Internet access
being disabled under this new policy. ³

Students who do want to use P2P for legal purposes have to call their IT
department and ³provide detailed information about the software you wish to
use and your purposes for using it.² My guess is something like ³downloading
a licensed Girls Gone Wild episode off of BitTorrent.com² won¹t cut it.

Of course one could argue that Universities shouldn¹t subsidize the
downloading of movies with flashing teenagers to begin with. It¹s their
network, and it¹s supposed to be used for education, not entertainment,
right?

If it only was that easy. The truth of the matter is that universities don¹t
seem to mind entertainment within their networks if it¹s from the right
source. Ohio University and roughly 60 other schools have made deals with a
company called Cdigix to provide digital music downloads and subscriptions
for their students. More than a hundred schools signed with Ruckus.com, a
similiar service that also offers movies and TV show downloads. Combine this
with a growing trend to enact Anti-P2P measures that block legal P2P
platforms offering the very same shows and movies, and you¹ve got yourself a
nice little conflict of interest.

Granted, most folks in higher education could probably care less about where
their students buy the next American Pie flick. Universities are driven to
radical measures like these because of the flood of litigation against their
file-sharing students. But it looks like once again it could be the legal
marketplace that suffers the most.