RIAA win: Tennessee to police campus networks

Colleges in Tennessee will be required to root out file sharing.

(Credit: University of Tennessee )

Tennessee has agreed to filter computer networks for unauthorized music downloads at the state's colleges and universities.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed into law a bill designed to thwart music piracy at the state's campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America said on its Web site.

The bill requires Tennessee public and private schools exercise "appropriate means" to ensure that campus computer networks aren't being used to download copyright material via peer-to-peer file-sharing programs, the RIAA said.

"Upon a proper analysis of the network," the RIAA continued, "those institutions are required to implement technological support and develop and enforce a computer network usage policy to effectively limit the number of unauthorized transmissions of copyrighted works."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet-user advocacy group, called the law "ridiculous," and said the costs of enforcing it would top $9 million.

"The entertainment industry lobby seems to be succeeding, bit-by-bit in persuading legislators to coerce universities into buying 'infringement suppression' technologies," the EFF said in a blog post, adding that these technologies are expensive and "won't stop file sharing on campus networks."

The RIAA said that a 2007 Student Monitor survey found that more than half of college students download music and movies illegally.

A friend of mine, Patricia Montesinos, a senior at the University of Tennessee, said Tuesday she's seen no notifications yet from the school about filtering.

[karpenterskids]

Oh brother, it's the big brother.

[dascha1]

Anyone who has a Music Industry degree from a 4-year College within the U.S. please response with "I do" to this Comment. And those who are now working in Tenn. in the Music Industry please make a note as well. Thanks!

[karpenterskids]

lol...apparently, there aren't many...good try, though. :)

[faboumen]

I'm happy that, in the middle of a budget crunch, the state of Tennessee can find the money to pander to the RIAA and their underhanded business practices. I suppose one can't even boycott the recording industry and still avoid giving them money.

[rcrusoe]

The governor of Tennessee is also spending $20+ million on an underground bunker so he'll have some place to hold parties. There's only a budget crunch on line items that don't effect him or his buddies.

[Laserdisc]

You think the State is going to pay for this? No way this cost is going straight to students. Students who are already paying an inflated tuition rate during tough economic times will now have to pony up more money just so the school can comply with this new law.

[RGarrard]

Don't forget, these are the people who have Joe Biden in their pocket.

[Michichael]

Wow.... Great luck trying to enforce that. It's a waste of money to be honest - any good sys admin knows how to manage his network and keep crapware that IS most pirated stuff off of it. As far as providing network access to student's personal machines - best of luck trying to enforce it without violating net neutrality. The campus can be considered an ISP, and if you start blanket banning protocols, such as Bit Torrent, they're screwed. Legitimate programs, such as the Blizzard Downloader, use the protocol.

Anyway I'm preaching to the choir if I complain about how ineffective this is. SSH tunnel anyone? Encrypted transfers? Yeah. Duh. You can't stop the signal - this is just another attempt by a dying beast to prolong it's death rattle. We need a millionaire to take these guys on in court once and for all and get some real professionals in the courtroom, not these DRM toting retards.

[DHarrill]

-Couldn't agree more....you're %100 right

[BtmnHatesRbn]

I'd like to indicate and forth-come with the truth herein, but the Marxo-Liberals who own Viacom, who is the majority share-holder of CBS, ergo, the owners, who own CNET, will not let me post such a thing, because it would be considered offensive.

Let's just say, this group of people control everything, and want to control us as punishment for something we've never done to them, but yet we're blamed for it.

They control the RIAA, MPAA, and EIEIO.

[jtjt145]

The greed mongering RIAA won a round. So what? Nothing inventive minds, and network-trained students could not deal with!
The important thing is THEY ARE LOSING IN THE PUBLIC OPINION. It is really only a question of time before public-elected politicians will have to turn the tables on them to appease their constituency.
RIAA and all the other MAFIAA organizations: Thy game is up! (... and you know it!)

[BK216]

lol they're still going after music downloads?

[baconstang]

HA ha! Listen to the free(down)loaders whine. "Wah, I have to PAY for some ones hard work???" "99¢!!! I have to work THREE WHOLE MINUTES to pay for that song someone worked on for weeks!" "Hell! They should pay ME to listen to it!"

[Renegade Knight]

Did you have a point that related to anything anybody said? Didn't think so.

[baconstang]

Why does the EFF hate musicians and songwriters?

[rcrusoe]

IMO, the EFF doesn't "hate musicians and songwriters". They, like a lot of us, don't like the government interfering in what is a totally civil matter. If students are violating copyright laws take them to court. The schools don't need to be wasting their money trying to play bill collector for a bunch of corporations.

Tennessee schools are going to spend $10M - $14M installing hardware to monitor their networks and the students are going to continue to move their file sharing onto closed wireless networks that cost tens of dollar to set up and maintain. And since these wifi networks don't touch the Internet or campus networks they will continue to share music among the "invitation only" members of their network.

Don't get me wrong, I pay for all my music and movies. Just ask iTunes and Amazon ;) I do not condone illegal downloading.

But no amount of legislation or hardware can fix the outdated business plans of the music and movie industry. This is just one more "bailout" that is doomed to failure.

[contentcreator--2008]

"Everyone steals so it is OK, right?" Keep on trying to convince yourselves of that--- that 'everyone' does it, and that it is OK. Just a bunch of dime-store thugs. When you grow up (and you are children), do you want a job in a growing society that respects intellectual property, or one that regards it as free, which you can enjoy from behind the counter at McD's? Can you or society produce assets, or only earn today's wage? Steal a buck today, lose a million tomorrow.

[Laserdisc]

I don't think most of the people who commented here have a problem with the RIAA protecting it's copyrighted material even though it seems to be futile since there are just too many ways to circumvent the anti-piracy measures this new law requires. My beef is that the RIAA isn't willing to pony up the money to establish such a system and simply pass the cost ultimately onto the student. If I'm mistaken and the RIAA is willing to pay 100% for such a filtering/monitoring system in universities then I wouldn't have a problem with it and wish them good luck.

[Vurk]

I want to live in a country that respects the only two kinds of property that exist in the real world (not the corporate world), real property and personal property. Intellectual property is just another way of saying "we, the corporations of America, own your ideas."
Intellectual property has no basis in law or fact, it is merely a lawyers wet dream.

[Imalittleteapot]

Maybe, write a file sharing program that wraps up all transfers by encrypting with some kind of anti-copy DRM. Just make it so weak a first grader could hack it. However, when someone opens it to see what it is while they try to police the network they'll have to go jail because they will have broken the anti-circumvention sections of the DMCA. Might not work, but it would be nice if we started looking for legal loopholes like this to turn these laws back on these jerks.

[karpenterskids]

lol...it might work.

[JFresh21]

I'm not saying downloading music for free is OK. According to the law today, it's illegal. Free downloading does somewhat hurt the songwriters. Whether the law is right or not is not the discussion.

What the RIAA is doing, forcing state universities to invade the privacy of its tuition-paying students by checking their networks for what students are doing online, is wrong. This is not the way to make progress with this issue. For too long the RIAA has gotten away with these practices, I truly wish someone would hold them accountable for their actions.

[Wookiee-1138]

Where's the Dread Pirate Elaine Roberts when you need her? :(

[Maccess]

Pretty soon Tennessee will be the Indie Band capital of America as students stick to independently produced music.

[chuckles2008]

There is no doubt that the artists should get paid for their works. However, this industry (RIAA in particular) has been lazy for years. They basically lied and said the price of CDS would come down. NOT. They refused to adapt to technology until years after free distribution was happening. Mp3s came into existence around 96 or 97.. In this climate, you HAVE to be pro-active. If not, you're gonna get run over. Forcing univerisites to police their networks and report/remove pirated songs is a waste of resources. I believe had they had alternative sources, instead of relying 100 % on the old model, they would not be in the shape they are currently in. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the 90's internet. Less legal issues,more innovation,less government.

[gregorytga]

While this may curb causal pirates, all it it'd take is a secure proxy server to thwart any methodology they could cheaply implement. Ideally people wouldn't pirate and copyright holders do have a right to defend but this hardly is a pressing issue at this current moment in time and its at its heart censorship as likely it'll block plenty of legit uses.

[Sausagebiscuit]

Yay we now have a police state.

All of you who call this "stealing" it is not. It is copyright infringement. Stealing is the act of taking something that does not belong to you, and that something can not be replaced causing a loss to the owner. You are not depriving the Artist of his/her song. You are copying it without permission, which is copyright infringement.

So the RIAA got some small state to pass a law. Once it passes in California, then we are all screwed. I think the problem is the way the RIAA is handling this, not the fact that they want to protect copyrights. Suing your customers is never the solution.

[johnericanderson]

If they are not paying, then they are not customers.

[kkohnen]

The funny thing about the RIAA's "legal basis" is it's fundamentally flawed. They claim that by simply making material available to be copied, the law has been violated. What about NetFlix, who will mail you a boat load of DVDs for $20 per month? All you have to do is (illegally) copy the DVD and then return it (postage paid! heh!) to NetFlix and get a new one. In short, for $20 per month, a person can build up their bootleg DVD library and no one will know.

Are the Hollywood studios suing NetFlix? Not that I know.

Or how about _Public_ Libraries? They loan out, for free, CDs and DVDs. They too make copyrighted material available.

So, why isn't the RIAA (and Hollywood) going after NetFlix and public libraries for making digital material _available_ to be copied?

The RIAA doesn't want to admit that they're vastly outnumbered and, no matter what DRM is applied, it is ALWAYS possible to make a unprotected digital copy of any music.

[QMT]

Could this hearken the return of the mythical Sneakernet?

[Vurk]

The"sneakernet" was never mythical, merely practical. It was called *a* sneakernet because you would walk a copy of something to your "network" of friends using your "sneakers".
It is the most secure of all networks. But it is also the smallest of networks, with little or no integration with other "sneakernets".