By Adam LoBelia
College students illegally trading copyrighted material over the Internet have frequently been pursued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Last week, the RIAA took aim at students using the exclusive Internet2 file-sharing network that is commonly used on college campuses across the country.
The lawsuits were handed down to 405 students from 18 different colleges who were using the system known as i2hub. The program is unique from other file-sharing applications such as WinMX and Kazaa in that it offers higher connection speeds than other services.
i2hub, which connects only colleges that are members of the Internet2 network, is used to transfer academic materials at high speeds. This helps users exchange DVD quality video presentations and audio examples of classical music at high speeds.
No University students were involved in the lawsuits because currently the University is not a member of the network. However, the University plans to join the network, possibly before the semester is over, Melissa Connolly, assistant vice president of University Relations, said.
The controversy reached i2hub when the RIAA learned the identities of students sharing music files through the network.
“We don’t know how the RIAA identified the students it caught committing copyright infringement,” said Lauren Kallens, media relations manager for Internet2. “We have not given access to any outside groups.”
Kallens said the RIAA probably had an agent of theirs using the system searching for users sharing copyrighted material. The RIAA could then contact the managers of i2hub and ask them to provide the details on the users based on their IP addresses.
Internet2 and the i2hub were not created to share files in the same way as commercial file-sharing programs. Internet2 was designed for sharing academic materials with college students, as well as researchers and professors. Students were taking advantage of the service’s exceptionally fast connection speeds to share music as well as movies, causing the Motion Picture Association of America to threaten to sue i2hub users.
Connolly said the University has already tested the connection to i2hub and is planning on going online with Internet2 within two weeks. The recent controversy may cause University students to receive increased scrutiny by the RIAA and MPAA.
“We catch students every single week for copyright breaches,” said Dan Ramirez, a coordinator for ResNet, which maintains and oversees the University’s local access network. Ramirez said third-party companies, such as the RIAA, will track down students even on the University’s network and report their activities to ResNet.
No student at the University has been sued for copyright violation because when a student is caught, the person’s Internet connection is cut, often without informing the student. When the student inquires about the lost connection, a summons is issued and the students is disciplined by the University.
“It can take two to three weeks to recover a connection after it’s been cut,” Ramirez said. “There have been no repeat offenders as far as I know.”
The University’s disciplinary process is described by Connolly as an educational procedure.
“We want our students to follow the law,” she said. “It’s an educational process about what’s legal and what’s illegal.”
Once the process is over, the student’s connection is restored after they clear their hard drive.
As a policy, ResNet is obliged to take such measures due to the Digital Millinneium Copyright Act of 1998. Nevertheless, ResNet is careful about how it handles software piracy.
“We don’t want to cut off service that has legitimate purposes,” Ramirez said.