U of A asks U of F for help
While the RIAA claims its sue ‘em all subpoena campaign is having a significant effect on curbing p2p file sharing, the University of Arizona says it’s one of 100 universities that have contacted the University of Florida for help.
Since November 2000, the UA has received about 540 complaints of copyright infringement under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and, "More than 300 have come in the past year, and most are against student-owned computers located in dorms," says Inger Sandal in the Arizona Daily Star here.
The U of A is looking to the U of F because it’s interested in the latter’s custom-crafted ICARUS (Integrated Control Application for Restricting User Services) which shuts down network access if it detects anything resembling p2p activity.
ICARUS was developed by UF programmers after the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) warned administrators they were about to join the ranks of American schools targetted for record label retribution.
But it came as something of a surprise to quite a few students moving into UF dorms because rather like the RIAA, ICARUS doesn’t appear to be able to tell The Good or The Bad from The Ugly.
"Harry, a dorm resident who wouldn?t give his last name, said he was shut off twice and ended up buying a new network card before he figured out why he couldn?t get online," says a report in the UF’s alligator online.
"Another student was blocked twice for using Internet Relay Chat, a chat program that also allows for some file sharing. All of them insisted they weren?t trafficking illegal files.
"The program?s authors are trying to keep its exact workings secret to protect against hackers, who may find a way to bypass it."
Icarus has clipped the wings of about 1,800 Gators who have tried to download so far this fall, says Sandal, going on that with about 30,000 networked computers, including PCs and laptops, the UA has the largest non-Defense Department system in Southern Arizona.
"Many computers are in public-access areas such as libraries, where it is possible to download music but more complicated," she states. "A student who says he was trying to download music recently crashed the computers in the Information Commons for about 20 minutes. Police continue to investigate."
