tamarisk
May 13th, 2004, 01:18 AM
http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2004/05/13/news13.html
By Adam Lewis
Senior staff writer
They fought the law and the law won.
The refrain from Pepsi's Super Bowl commercial served as a reminder of Pepsi's promotion that gave free legal music downloads on iTunes to Pepsi drinkers.
The underlying message, however, told a different story. Teenagers talked about being sued by the recording industry for illegally downloading music before cheerfully promoting Pepsi's new deal, showing the dangers of illegal file sharing.
The issue of online piracy hit home on the campus this semester as the popular file-sharing program Direct Connect shut down after senior Pavel Beresnev said he had reported the program's hub on the campus to the Recording Industry Association of America.
While the temporary shutdown did not cause the end of file sharing on the campus, it did raise awareness of the dangers of illegal downloading.
Meanwhile, a student task force at the university will continue its work next year to educate students about the dangers of online file sharing and investigating the possibility of bringing a legal file sharing alternative to the campus.
Seth Zonies, a senior biochemistry major and a member of the University Senate, said the task force has formed a tentative partnership with part-time communication professor David Rockland, who teaches a senior Capstone course. Rockland agreed to let part of his class work on a communication and education campaign about the dangers of file sharing as their Capstone project, while serving as adviser for the project.
"His main job is working at a large PR firm in New York City, and he has a lot of experience doing PR and campaigns," Zonies said. "We're extremely delighted to be working with him and with students in a partnership that is going to develop something important."
While the main educational campaign will be unveiled next spring, the task force is also trying to develop a survey that presents the different legitimate downloading packages gathered by students, Zonies said. These alternatives include iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.
The university is participating in a workshop this summer hosted by the University System of Maryland to look at file sharing on the campus and how to stop it with higher education and entertainment industry representatives, said Amy Ginther, spokeswoman for the university's Office of Information Technology.
"Among the workshop goals is an examination of the legal and public policy issues and the emerging business models," Ginther said. "The presence of the P2P task force members at the workshop will go a long way to communicate that students are concerned at arriving at real solutions."
"We may be sending student representatives to that conference, but that is not to say that we're cooperating in any way with the RIAA, who will also be at this conference," Zonies said. "It just means we're going to be contributing to a dialogue about the issue."
The entertainment industry has cracked down on online piracy this year, leading to both lawsuits and educational campaigns designed to discourage illegal file sharing, especially on college campuses.
Officials at the RIAA said they are taking several different approaches to quell the trend of downloading music online, among other media.
"It's a multifaceted strategy of which enforcement is one component," said Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman. "Piracy is overwhelming in the music industry - CD sales are down by 20 percent, record companies have laid off thousands of staff and royalties are getting slashed. How do you get a handle on this enormous problem?"
In terms of lawsuits, Lamy said the deciding factor for who gets sued is determined by how much file sharing is done.
Both Lamy and Rich Taylor, the vice president of public affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America, said colleges seem to breed downloading activity because of easy access to high-speed Internet, which many first-time students have never had. Some universities have reported up to 70 percent of the traffic on their network at any given time is illegal file sharing, Lamy said.
"The primary criteria is the level of infringement, meaning the number of songs that someone is making available for other people to download illegally," he said. "There needs to be an element of enforcement to remind people that there can be consequences for this action."
The RIAA, however, also employs other strategies to cut down music piracy, including offering fans a legitimate alternative and education about the legal ramifications of file sharing.
"The lawsuits should not be considered a vacuum," Lamy said. "We want to encourage fans to migrate back to the marketplace. First and foremost, we need to be offering a legitimate alternative and let people understand what's illegal."
The MPAA also has a vested interest in ending online piracy, utilizing trailers before movies to show the effects of file sharing.
"Part of what we're doing is public education," Taylor said. "In the past six months, you've seen a trailer with someone involved behind the scenes - a set painter, a stuntman - saying that they're the ones harmed by file sharing, and that there's a real cost to them when you don't pay for movies."
While the MPAA has not served downloaders with lawsuits, Taylor did not rule it out as a future possibility to protect their works.
Much like the emergence of Napster and iTunes as legal online music alternatives, Movielink and CinemaNow are starting to take hold as video-on-demand services. They allow people to download movies for short periods of time before they automatically delete themselves from the user's computer.
"We hope the legitimate digital marketplace can take root and thrive, allowing people to download movies for a fair price," Taylor said.
By Adam Lewis
Senior staff writer
They fought the law and the law won.
The refrain from Pepsi's Super Bowl commercial served as a reminder of Pepsi's promotion that gave free legal music downloads on iTunes to Pepsi drinkers.
The underlying message, however, told a different story. Teenagers talked about being sued by the recording industry for illegally downloading music before cheerfully promoting Pepsi's new deal, showing the dangers of illegal file sharing.
The issue of online piracy hit home on the campus this semester as the popular file-sharing program Direct Connect shut down after senior Pavel Beresnev said he had reported the program's hub on the campus to the Recording Industry Association of America.
While the temporary shutdown did not cause the end of file sharing on the campus, it did raise awareness of the dangers of illegal downloading.
Meanwhile, a student task force at the university will continue its work next year to educate students about the dangers of online file sharing and investigating the possibility of bringing a legal file sharing alternative to the campus.
Seth Zonies, a senior biochemistry major and a member of the University Senate, said the task force has formed a tentative partnership with part-time communication professor David Rockland, who teaches a senior Capstone course. Rockland agreed to let part of his class work on a communication and education campaign about the dangers of file sharing as their Capstone project, while serving as adviser for the project.
"His main job is working at a large PR firm in New York City, and he has a lot of experience doing PR and campaigns," Zonies said. "We're extremely delighted to be working with him and with students in a partnership that is going to develop something important."
While the main educational campaign will be unveiled next spring, the task force is also trying to develop a survey that presents the different legitimate downloading packages gathered by students, Zonies said. These alternatives include iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.
The university is participating in a workshop this summer hosted by the University System of Maryland to look at file sharing on the campus and how to stop it with higher education and entertainment industry representatives, said Amy Ginther, spokeswoman for the university's Office of Information Technology.
"Among the workshop goals is an examination of the legal and public policy issues and the emerging business models," Ginther said. "The presence of the P2P task force members at the workshop will go a long way to communicate that students are concerned at arriving at real solutions."
"We may be sending student representatives to that conference, but that is not to say that we're cooperating in any way with the RIAA, who will also be at this conference," Zonies said. "It just means we're going to be contributing to a dialogue about the issue."
The entertainment industry has cracked down on online piracy this year, leading to both lawsuits and educational campaigns designed to discourage illegal file sharing, especially on college campuses.
Officials at the RIAA said they are taking several different approaches to quell the trend of downloading music online, among other media.
"It's a multifaceted strategy of which enforcement is one component," said Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman. "Piracy is overwhelming in the music industry - CD sales are down by 20 percent, record companies have laid off thousands of staff and royalties are getting slashed. How do you get a handle on this enormous problem?"
In terms of lawsuits, Lamy said the deciding factor for who gets sued is determined by how much file sharing is done.
Both Lamy and Rich Taylor, the vice president of public affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America, said colleges seem to breed downloading activity because of easy access to high-speed Internet, which many first-time students have never had. Some universities have reported up to 70 percent of the traffic on their network at any given time is illegal file sharing, Lamy said.
"The primary criteria is the level of infringement, meaning the number of songs that someone is making available for other people to download illegally," he said. "There needs to be an element of enforcement to remind people that there can be consequences for this action."
The RIAA, however, also employs other strategies to cut down music piracy, including offering fans a legitimate alternative and education about the legal ramifications of file sharing.
"The lawsuits should not be considered a vacuum," Lamy said. "We want to encourage fans to migrate back to the marketplace. First and foremost, we need to be offering a legitimate alternative and let people understand what's illegal."
The MPAA also has a vested interest in ending online piracy, utilizing trailers before movies to show the effects of file sharing.
"Part of what we're doing is public education," Taylor said. "In the past six months, you've seen a trailer with someone involved behind the scenes - a set painter, a stuntman - saying that they're the ones harmed by file sharing, and that there's a real cost to them when you don't pay for movies."
While the MPAA has not served downloaders with lawsuits, Taylor did not rule it out as a future possibility to protect their works.
Much like the emergence of Napster and iTunes as legal online music alternatives, Movielink and CinemaNow are starting to take hold as video-on-demand services. They allow people to download movies for short periods of time before they automatically delete themselves from the user's computer.
"We hope the legitimate digital marketplace can take root and thrive, allowing people to download movies for a fair price," Taylor said.