Colleges Adopt Tough Approach to Copyright Violations

Colleges Adopt Tough Approach to Copyright Violations

From the Chronicle - http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2593/colleges-adopt-tough-approach-to-copyright-violations

Politicians and the entertainment industry complain that colleges are not doing enough to stop students from swapping music and movie files online in violation of copyright law. But a recent survey by Elliot Kendall, a network administrator at Brandeis University, shows that colleges are being strict with these students. His findings, based on responses from 80 colleges, show that most of them cut off students’ network or Internet access after receiving complaints from the entertainment industry that students have violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Other findings from the survey show the following:
°Most colleges penalize students after only one complaint of infringement.
°Most colleges have tried to educate students about infringement.
° More than a third of colleges said their copyright infringement policies were relatively effective in stopping infringement.

In a related survey, Mr. Kendall asked colleges about their bandwidth policies. Most of them said they use packet-shaping software to detect which students are hogging too much bandwidth and to stop the behavior. Students typically use a lot of bandwidth when sharing music and movie files online.—-Andrea L. Foster