New technology makes illegal downloading a lesser worry

Nov 4 2009 - 1:13am | Beth Brown

Students can stream music, movies and television shows instantaneously and without charge. With such Internet resources, some say the era of illegal downloading could be coming to an end.

Liz Kennedy, deputy director of communications at the Recording Industry Association of America, said students are taking advantage of new technology to avoid illegally downloading.

“Due to the efforts of the music labels, fans today can find music on their favorite social networking pages like MySpace or Facebook and enjoy music videos on YouTube,” Kennedy said in an e-mail. “Ultimately it’s encouraging students today are aware of the law.”

The association works with colleges and universities to monitor peer-to-peer online trafficking and illegal exchanging of entertainment. If the association catches unauthorized downloading, they send a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint to the campus, which includes the IP address of the computer involved.

Kennedy said thousands of alerts are sent across the country every week, notifying universities and colleges of students who are using programs like Limewire, BitTorrent and Ares.

Kennedy said streaming Web sites such as YouTube, Pandora and Hulu, combined with officials’ hands-on approach to deterring illegal downloading have resulted in a successful decrease in the crimes across campuses nation-wide.

“Many schools have employed their own approaches to curbing music theft and seen positive results,” Kennedy said. “The most successful anti-music theft approaches are those that are comprehensive and employing a combination of tools — educational programs, legal online options and technological tools that prevent misuse of the campus network.”

Lori McElroy, IT Chief Security Officer, said it is a problem Texas State has not completely eliminated yet despite working with the Recording Industry Association and the law.

“It’s certainly a more convenient thing, having streaming video for music,” McElroy said. “But whether it stops the problem of illegally downloading, it doesn’t.”

Students who violate copyright laws can receive fines up to $250,000 and jail time. IT administrators may disable computer access for those students until the illegally downloaded material has been removed, as well as monitor the computer in the future.

“We’ve had a very, very small amount of (repeat offenders),” McElroy said. “And I mean very small, like less than three.”

Corbett Consolvo, Senior Information Security analyst, said Texas State has a much smaller digital footprint than other universities. When administrators see an influx of Digital Millennium Acts, they have a plan. That plan includes awareness programs, devoting Internet pages to deterring and explaining what qualifies as an illegal activity, and sending emails every semester which keep students aware of the risks.

Illegal downloading on campus causes bandwidth issues. Spikes in streaming contentaffect bandwidth, which is not as much a legal issue as it is a problem with the speed of the campus network.

“It hasn’t been a really terrible impact, but we can tell a difference,” Consolvo said. “We’re starting to see we’re getting closer to our cap. So we’re starting to investigate what to do next to beef up our infrastructure.”

McElroy said she will rely on being proactive to face bandwidth challenges. She maintains illegal downloading on campus will not end without educating the students about the risk.

“We have taken a much practiced role in making sure we do our due diligence to make sure we educate students,” McElroy said. “Rather than the convenience, we feel like that makes the biggest impact.”

The students ultimately decide whether or not to illegally download, but with video streaming Web sites available for free, some don’t see the need. Laura Butler, undecided freshman, is depending less on illegally downloading because of the streaming Web sites.

“It’s a lot easier to get a hold of new music and shows now,” Butler said. “There will always be more resources that pop up to get free entertainment that won’t require downloading illegally.”

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