The Recording Industry Association of America’s request for college administrators to curb the use of LAN file-sharing programs, combined with Ithaca College students formally warned for downloading, serves as an alert to a problem that has been ignored by the college.
Since 2003, more than 250 students were warned when the college began addressing this problem. Yet some students continue to download illegally. This disconnect does not prepare students for the legal consequences of downloading once they are outside the college environment. To remedy this, the college must recognize students’ desires to enjoy music and video file sharing and their refusal to give this up. Instead of judicial referrals, the college should meet this need by creating a legal downloading alternative.
One possible legal downloading program for the college to use is Ruckus, a system with 1.5 million licensed tracks for download by students attending colleges with which it is affiliated. Ruckus currently has partnerships with schools like SUNY-Cortland, Wesleyan and Babson.
Another solution would be for the college to hold forums to educate students on the need to preserve intellectual property and explain the real-world consequences of file sharing. One such forum that members of the community should attend is the discussion on file sharing tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Cornell. This discussion is open to the public or students can watch it online at cit.cornell.edu/oit/UCPL.html.
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- Free, Legal and Ignored
- Piracy thriving on campuses
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