P2P File Sharing

A Statement by Mark Luker, Vice President of EDUCAUSE

Date: January 22, 2008

Stewart McLaurin, Exec VP of the MPAA for Education Affairs, phoned EDUCAUSE on January 22 to report that the MPAA has discovered a data-entry error in their 2005 LEK study of illegal file sharing. As a result, they now believe that college students are responsible for 15-16% of their illegal downloading revenue loss, not the 44% figure that has been widely quoted in the press, meetings, letters to our presidents, and congressional testimony. In addition, Stewart verified that the new figure still includes all college students, not just the 18.7% of them that live on campus; therefore, the final figure for revenue loss due to downloading on campus is actually closer to 3%. (File sharing in student apartments and homes off campus typically involves only commercial ISPs.)

This new development means that the provisions in HR 4137 (the College Access and Affordability Act) would require colleges and universities to develop a plan to spend millions of dollars on technologies to reduce 3% of the MPAA projected revenue loss due to illegal downloading. Although it remains important to address the problem of copyright infringement by college students through education, policy, and judicial measures, these new figures cast substantial doubt on the cost effectiveness of technology-based deterrents to prevent such behavior.

Stewart said that the MPAA has or is personally alerting the academic staff of the Joint Committee, and it will alert all the relevant congressional committees and the campuses that the MPAA has been working with. He would not say if the MPAA will make a public announcement of the error, but said the new 2007 LEK study will reflect low numbers when it is completed.

EDUCAUSE will be working with AAU, NASULGC, and ACE on a joint statement to be issued in the near future.

• HEA Legislative Update
• House Education and Labor Committee member names and phone numbers

College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (HR 4137)

• Entire Bill as introduced in the House November 9, 2007

• Bill with adopted amendments as of November 15, 2007

• Specific P2P language of concern to higher education contained in College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007, November 9, 2007
• Substitute copyright infringement language approved by the Senate, (SB 1642), July 26, 2007

What You Can Do

• ACTION ALERT February 15, 2008
• Talking points College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (updated March 3, 2008)

• Suggested Templates for your use in calls and faxes (updated March 3, 2008)

Member Letters to Congress

• MIT Letterto the Massachusetts delegation concerning proposed Peer-to-Peer language in the HEA bill.

Other Resources

• Higher education associations join EDUCAUSE in opposing House HEA Reauthorization language, March 11, 2008.House Letter and Senate Letter
• Letter to the Editor: Respect for Copyright Comes from EducationEDUCAUSE Vice President, Mark Luker, responds to an opinion piece by Dan Glickman of the MPAA, December 10, 2007.
• Letter to Chairman George Miller and Ranking Member Howard McKeonThis letter from EDUCAUSE requests that Section 494(a)(2) be deleted from H.R. 4137, November 27, 2007.
• Letter Opposing the Inclusing of the Entertainment Industry Proposal on Illegal File Sharing in the HEAThis Joint Committe letter was sent to members of the House Education and Labor Committee concerning the College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007, November 7, 2007.
• Letter to Presidents from the Higher Education Members of the Joint CommitteeThis Joint Committe letter encourages universities and colleges to continue to educate students on illegal filesharing and copyright infringement, October 15, 2007.
• The MPAA and Illegal File Sharing Among Students An interview with Daniel R. Glickman, President of the Motion Picture Association of America. Chronicle of Higher Education, October 12, 2007.

Legitimate P2P Uses

• Bibster: A project that aims to assist researchers in managing, searching, and sharing bibliographic metadata (e.g., from BibTeX files) in a peer-to-peer network.
• Blizzard Entertainment: Distributes World of Warcraft game updates using Blizzard Downloader (a combination BitTorrent/HTTP client).
• bt.etree.org: This site is provided by the etree.org community for sharing the live concert recordings of trade friendly artists.
• Gutenberg: The CD and DVD Project: Uses BitTorrent to distribute CD and DVD image files (ISO files).
• ibiblio: An online library and archive tht provides BitTorrent access to its content.
• Joost: A P2P Internet TV client.
• Librivox: Distributes audio recordings of books that are in the public domain via BitTorrent.
• LinuxTracker: A free linux download resource.
• NASA's Visible Earth Project: A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet.
• Skype: Uses a P2P telephony network.
• VMware's Virtual Appliance Marketplace: Offers a catalog of pre-built VMs that can be freely shared, made by members of the VM community.

Articles Describing Legitimate P2P Uses

• BitTorrent Inks Studio Distribution Deal (5/8/2006)
• Aiming to Unclog Legitimate P2P (8/7/2006)

Thanks to Oren Sreebny for starting this list of legitimate P2P uses.

Legal Action and Court Cases

RIAA v. The People: Four Years LaterAugust 2007In this report the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provides a comprehensive look at the four-year litigation campaign waged by the RIAA against music fans.

RIAA Settlement Offer LetterFebruary 28, 2007This is an anonymous copy of the RIAA letter sent to schools concerning students violating federal copyright laws by uploading and downloading music over school networks. The letter offers the student an opportunity to settle copyright infringement claims prior to any lawsuit action against the student.

How the RIAA Litigation Process WorksVandenberg and Feliu LLPThis web site gives a detailed explanation of how the RIAA goes about suing alleged users of P2P file sharing software.

Letters to Congress Concerning the HEA Reauthorization

• Letter sent by USACM, to Congress regarding technology-based filtering of Internet traffic by universities; April 14, 2008
• MIT

Motion Picture and Recording Industry Associations of America and File Sharing

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

Network Security and File Sharing

Privacy and Security Risks of P2P File-SharingU.S. House of Representatives - May 15, 2003The Committee on Government Reform released a report on the privacy and security risks posed by the use of popular peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Kazaa.

Universities and Illegal File Sharing

Infringement-Suppression Technologies: Summary Observations from a Common Solutions Group Workshop, Report Summary- January 2008In an effort to better understand the technologies available for copyright infringement control, the Common Solutions Group invited leading vendors of detection and suppression technologies to present and discuss the architecture and implementation of their products at an intensive workshop held at Virginia Tech on January 9, 2008

Letter Opposing the Inclusing of the Entertainment Industry Proposal on Illegal File Sharing in the HEA- November 7, 2007This Joint Committe letter was sent to members of the House Education and Labor Committee concerning the College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007.

Letter to Presidents from the Higher Education Members of the Joint Committee- October 15, 2007This Joint Committe letter encourages universities and colleges to continue to educate students on illegal filesharing and copyright infringement.

Workshop on Requirements for Technological Control of Illegal File Sharing on College and University Networks- October 3, 2007This is the report from April 2007 technology workshop held under the direction of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities.

House Committee Holds Hearing on Filesharing on Campus- June 5, 2007The House Science and Technology Committee held a full committee hearing to discuss “The Role of Technology in Reducing Illegal Filesharing: A University Perspective.”

Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks- November 2006Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities paper concerning the liability issues surrounding illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing at colleges and universities.

File Sharing: Selected Universities Report Taking Action to Reduce Copyright InfringementU. S. General Accounting Office - May 2004A US General Accounting Office report to congressional requesters on file sharing and copyright infringement.

University Policies and Practices Addressing Improper Peer-to-Peer File SharingAmerican Council on Education - April 2004This paper is intended to provide college and university administrators with a variety of examples of actions colleges and universities are taking to address the problem of unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing.

New Survey Indicates Campus Attitudes Invite Software PiracyBusiness Software Alliance - September 16, 2003A recent survey indicates that educators are finding that piracy ethics are a real problem on campus.

Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University NetworksAmerican Council on Education - August 15, 2003A white paper prepared by the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities.

Other Online Resources from EDUCAUSE

• Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities Technology Task Force