[DMCA-Activists] CHE - EPIC Warns Colleges Not to Monitor Student File Sharing

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Pho list; originally from Chronicle of
Higher Education)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 08:12:55 -0600
From: Steve Jones <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden

The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002110802t.htm

Privacy Advocates Warn Colleges Not to Monitor Content of
Students'  File Sharing

By SCOTT CARLSON
Friday, November 8, 2002


An organization of privacy advocates has released an open
letter  urging colleges not to monitor the content of
peer-to-peer and other  file-sharing transmissions. The
group says such monitoring could  violate student privacy.

The letter is a direct response to an earlier appeal to
colleges  from the recording-industry and motion-picture
associations, which  asked the institutions to use emerging
technologies to monitor  networks for "inappropriate use"
and copyright compliance. (That  letter is also available
online; it can be viewed using Adobe  Acrobat Reader,
available free.)

The new letter, written by the Electronic Privacy
Information  Center, says that monitoring networks could
"have a chilling effect  on the marketplace of ideas" and
might expose colleges to  liabilities under the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or  FERPA. The letter
also contends that adoption of monitoring  technologies
could lead to routine compromises of privacy and "is  likely
to lead to an escalating network 'arms race,' potentially 
harming overall network integrity and performance."

The Recording Industry Association of America issued a
brusque reply  from its president, Cary Sherman: "I don't
think anyone needs to  lecture universities about academic
freedom and respecting the First  Amendment or privacy
rights of their students."

Chris J. Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the privacy
group, says  the entertainment industry's letter was
"reasonable" in asking  universities both to adopt
strategies for managing bandwidth loads  and to create
educational programs for deterring file sharing. But,  he
adds, the industry stepped over the line when it urged
colleges  to monitor activity on their networks.

"It's impossible to monitor for copyright compliance without
peering  into the content of communications," he says. "We
argue that it's  not consistent with the mission of a
college and university to  monitor and ban transmissions."

That said, Mr. Hoofnagle does not know of any colleges
engaged in  monitoring content on their networks. Most
colleges steer clear of  such monitoring, fearing that it
will compromise provisions in the  Digital Millennium
Copyright Act that protect Internet service  providers from
lawsuits. The act's so-called safe-harbor provisions  allow
service providers to claim immunity from lawsuits by
holders  of infringed copyrights as long as the providers
didn't know that  users of their services were breaking the
law, and as long as the  providers took action against the
user as soon as the questionable  activity was pointed out.

However, Mr. Hoofnagle says he has recently heard of
regents'  pressuring college technology offices to adopt
more invasive  monitoring strategies, though he would not
say where this has  occurred. "There has been a lot of
pressure from the recording  industry on colleges and
universities, and I don't think there has  been a concerted
counter pressure from the computing or student 
communities," he says. "What we're trying to do is rally
students  and computer professionals around these ideas."

Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

----------------------------------------------------------
This is the pho mailing list, managed by Majordomo 1.94.4.

To send a message to the list, email address@hidden
To send a request to majordomo, email address@hidden
and put your
request in the body of the message (use request "help" for
help).
To unsubscribe from the list, email address@hidden
and put
"unsubscribe pho" in the body of the message.