University bans p2p apps
p2p news / p2pnet: Can you say RIAA?
UConn (Univerity of Connecticut) Information Technology Services says it’s going to in effect ban all p2p file sharing programs, except DC++.
“The current restrictions on these programs allow them to work, but limit their ability to consume network bandwidth and restrict their network speed,” says the Daily Campus.
But, “According to a campus-wide e-mail from UITS, similar restrictions have been on the network in the past from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., but they now apply to the entire day.”
The story has Elaine David, assistant vp for information services and the director of information technology security, policy and quality assurance, stating:
“It’s not prevention, but a restriction.”
As of the fall semester, all p2p programs will be blocked by default on the UConn network, and users will have to ask if theywant to use them, “for a short amount of time”.
“Our initial approach is to disable all peer-to-peer programs, then we’ll put a mechanism in place to allow their use,” says Mike Lang, a security analyst with UITS, in the Daily Campus. “But we haven’t worked out complete details yet, and once we implement the program, we’ll make adjustments based on user feedback.”
The story says would-be users will have to get permission to use p2p programs within a “time window” during which, “they will have no bandwidth limits and once it has closed they can re-apply for more time”.
The p2p “restrictions” affect the UConn network edge and the Internet, Lang said, programs that allow users to share within the UConn network, such DC++, won’t be unaffected, adds the Daily Campus.
DC ++, an open-source p2p file-sharing client used to hook into the Direct Connect network, is, interestingly, being targetted in Norway.
(Thanks, Paula)
Also See:
Daily Campus – University P2P Policy To Change, April 11, 2006
targetted in Norway – MPAA, RIAA, target Norway, April 3, 2006
April 11th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
This development is truly disheartening. As an example of how it can stifle student learning, I am currently trying out a few examples of Liniux Live CD’s. I have heard a lot about Linux and wanted to have a little experience with it to judge from.
One I hear some of the best buzz about from IT people is Linspire. They actually have a free Live-only version for download, but the only way I can find to download it is through Bitorrent.
So now the students may be unable to experience the Linspire environment because of these restrictions. It’s even worse than that for the students, however. In my case it is more of a hobby than a necessity. But some other countries have or are in the process of adopting Linux instead of Windows for their computing needs. If one of these students winds up having to interface with one of these countries for studies or subsequent jobs, he/she will be at a huge disadvantage from the starting line. Can you imagine if you had a degree here but had never used Windows before ? It would be the equivalent of having a twenty or thirty year old degree.
And the really pitiful part is that they could have gained all this experience FOR FREE.
April 11th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
I have installed countless Linux distros, from Slackware to RedHat to Mandrake to Debian to Ubuntu to Gentoo, and I have installed more versions of FreeBSD than I care to remember. I have never once used bittorrent to get an ISO.
April 11th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
If you can find a straight download of the free Liinspire Live CD please lay it on me – I’d love to have it.
April 11th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
BTW, which ones did you like best ? I’ve already tried Slax, it was cool, but how about the more full-featured ones ?
April 11th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I’m not sure how one blocks a “program” on a WAN/LAN. Programs run on individual machines. At the network level, the traffic from p2p applications can be identified by the protocol being used. Once identified, it can be managed or suppressed. ISPs refer to this as “traffic shaping.”
In response to the traffic shaping efforts of several ISPs who signed up customers for heavily advertized ‘unlimited’ internet service without actually consulting the dictionary as to the meaning of ‘uinlimited’, several enterprising developers have incorporated transport encryption into various p2p applications. Transport encryption encrypts the transport layer data within a packet stream, thus obfuscating it. The normal stateful packet inspection tools that are used to identify what type (or class) of traffic is being transported across a TCP connection will just report it as ‘unknown.’
The typical bureaucratic to such a development would be to simply prohibit ‘unknown’ traffic. But wait! There are two large problems with that. The technical issue is that the tool must be able to recognize each and every legitimate type of traffic. This would be a configuration management nightmare to attempt to keep up with and likely a massive inconvenience to users who have occasion to use ‘obscure’ applications for highly specialized fields (like cartography.)
The second, and far more significant problem is that UConn is a State University. The Supreme Court has ruled (many times) that people have the right to communicate anonymously and privately. The Government is not required to provide them the specific means to do so, nor is the Government prohibited from attempting to discover the originator, recipient, or content of such communication. (See: NSA) The Government is prohibited from PREVENTING such communication when attributable, cleartext communication is permitted within the same medium.
As an extension of this issue, how are members of the University community who maintain professional or family contacts through obfuscated or encrypted internet communications with those living in jurisdictions governed by repressive regimes that carefully monitor and control internet activity going to maintain those relationships when “unknown” traffic is blocked.
It will be interesting to see what the final implementation of their p2p filtering.
–TurboGeek
April 11th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
ftp://ftp.madtux.org/pub/Linspire/
April 12th, 2006 at 2:20 am
This link just goes to a message saying the file is not on the server
Thanks, though.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:36 am
p2pnet is mangling the link by replacing ftp:// with http://
try copy and pasting the link
April 12th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Thanks, but still no dice.
This all sort of goes back to the original thread, though. See how not being able to access torrents can have detrimental effects which have nothing to do with protecting copyrights ?
April 13th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
the image IS there, im not sure why it’s so difficult for you. forgetting this particular distro, the net is CHOCK FULL of http/ftp mirrors of linux distros, so the original point is not valid. YES bittorrent is a nice way to get ISO’s, but it is in no way necessary and blocking bittorrent in no way hampers your ability to get linux.