A Ban On Napster Becomes A Ban On Education? 21
Ecliptik asks: "I am currently a buisness student at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Many of my classmates and I are writing a large paper for a law class we have on Napster's legal battle. Due to the current ban which our university has put on Napster, many resources on Napster's site are blocked. So what do you think? Is this not only a ban on music, or is it also a ban on educational resources as well?" I can see why you'd want to ban the Napster client, which uses resources other than the standard HTTP port, but why do some colleges block access to Napster's Web site as well?
Napster ban (Score:1)
As already stated and guessed, the University of Dayton has blocked a NUMBER of file-sharing services due to ABUSE by people sharing files indiscriminately. We have a partial T3 running at 24MBps... last year we had 15MBps. And we were maxed out the FIRST WEEK the students came back.
The strain on our T3 was so bad, people from off-campus trying to get to our official web server or to check e-mail couldn't. I am the *NIX admin here. When _I_ can't even get 0.5KByte/sec to try and download software to improve the network, it is extremely frustrating... and frustrating for the other 15,000 people here on campus who have a LEGITIMATE need for internet access.
I was just told that the reason all of napster was blocked was that the web server and the service log in server are one in the same. We only have a layer 3 router (i.e. normal router), and not a layer 4 firewall, so separating the services was out of the question. It was all or nothing. Sorry folks: triage.
The University of Dayton is in no way for censorship. This issue is only about bandwidth abuse. A 24Mbps pipe is NOT cheap. I'm sure that students don't want yet ANOTHER tuition hike just to pay for the 20-40 or so students who use about 90% of our bandwidth, robbing the other 15,000 people on campus (students, faculty AND staff) of their right to use the Internet.
If students would learn to be responsible about bandwidth usage, the University of Dayton wouldn't NEED to limit ANY web site or internet service.
=plink=plink=plink=
(Just my $0.03)
-Richard Balint
University of Dayton
Re:Napster ban (Score:1)
LAN games only last so long. AOL/ICQ transfers start and stop quickly. Yes, it uses bandwidth, but it is not SUSTAINED for HOURS like file sharing is. There is a major difference between normal use and abuse of the network. Our network can handle normal use. Yes we will get spikes that fill our 24Mbps, but traffic can still get in and out. When the usage is PEGGED at 24Mbps over 18 hours a day, THAT is excessive.
And like always, these are my own interpretations of the situation here, and NOT an official statement by the University of Dayton. I'm just a concerned employee, like you are a concerned student. :)
-Richard Balint
Re:Napster ban (Score:1)
When the firewall goes up, I think napster and other services will be opened up again... just limited so that they don't take up the whole pipe.
Again, all statements are my own, and not necessarily those of the University of Dayton.
-Richard Balint
Use Google's cached version... (Score:2)
or have they banned search engines too?
Baz
You're ignoring the possibility.. (Score:1)
Re:Bandwidth... (Score:1)
of course, you could give them a website they could go to to check on the amount of bandwidth they have used that day, or maybe write a quick little app that shows it in thier taskbar.
Re:You're ignoring the possibility.. (Score:1)
-- Bucket
Re:rephrasing the question (Score:2)
My computer connects to the internet, wich has illegal things on it. Should I disconnect my computer from the internet...Signed, Perplexed
Dear Perplexed: No, you should destroy your computer, lest you might later succumb to the urge to reconnect it to the internet, where as all upright persons are appalled to know, licentious talk of illegalities freely and shamelessly circulates. While you're at it, you also, just in case, should pluck your eyeballs out, as per Matthew 5:29.
Yours Dr. Laura - WKiernan@concentric.net
not sure... (Score:1)
-mark
Bandwidth... (Score:2)
In the past, there was a loosely enforced policy in effect where students could only run Napster in the off-peak hours of 1 - 5 AM so as not to interfere with legitimate academic usage. Now the school has budgeted for a second T1 line, which has been completely dedicated to academic machines (faculty, labs), leaving the other for students to fight over themselves. Needless to say, accessing anything from your dorm room here still runs at about 50 - 500 bytes/sec - aka 0.5 KB/s max. I couldn't care less about people downloading songs and what not, but when it takes minutes on end of waiting to load simple web-pages something needs to be done. It's not denying people of an education to block the Napster website, it's ignorant Napster users who spout "Why do my songs take so long to download on Napster?" while 150 people are simultaneously downloading from their machine that deny us of an education...
I agree that censorship is not in any way an American ideal, and it's anyone's choice to break the law and pirate copyrighted music, but I fail to see what other choice is available when Napster users are robbing others (like myself) of their tuition money that goes towards school-provided Internet access.
I'm open to any suggestions anyone might have as a step to resolve such issues, or any advice on alerting the campus of the obviously rampant problem and steps that can be taken to resolve it... Feel free to drop me a line at cmgroteATthethirdDOTnet [mailto]. Hopefully there will be enough bandwidth for your message to go through =)
rephrasing the question (Score:1)
Should something which provides the means to do something illegal itself be illegal?
I haven't been following the napster case very closely, but I gather that the decision in napster's case has been something like, "yes, pending further review".
So, napster's website provides access to napster, which could potentially be used to do something illegal. Therefore, napster's website should be banned.
While we're at it, we should ban networking.
Re:Bandwidth... (Score:1)
Re:You're ignoring the possibility.. (Score:1)
Avoiding Legal Trouble (Score:1)
Re:Napster ban (Score:1)
As far as the bandwidth question goes, I really think traffic shaping and smart queuing is the answer rather than blocking the service entirely. Most hardware out there can already handle it, your important services can get at the bandwidth first, and you're not censoring anything so you can avoid sticky legal issues.
`dont forget that Linux became only possible because 20 years of OS research was carefully studied, analyzed, discussed and thrown away.' -- mingo on linux-kernel
Re:Bandwidth... (Score:1)
This reason for a ban already exists at some small colleges.
I did database training for Librarians and IT folk of nearby colleges (not universities) and to a person they despise censorship with the true passion of good librarians. To a person, they had either relegated Napster to the no-hit list, or to the wee hours. The wee hours ban was made total for the two weeks prior to mid-terms and finals.
Not because they wanted to protect the minds of the little students from Napster's corrupting influence, but because other students were unable to do assigned research, thanks to the bandwidth hogging of Napster. Needless to say, the students weren't happy.
I finally suggested that they speak to the students about infrastructure costs. I also suggested that they ask the students to do an economic analysis of napster usage the same way they would do an economic analysis of a polluting industry: in both cases, the entity using or creating the service is not always the one paying the hidden price.
Napster is free only if you do not take into account the infrastructure costs necessary to support Napster. The people benefitting from the service are not the people who made the judgements about placing the infrastructure, nor are they the ones who have to make a *%$(&#$ new budget to add bandwidth to support the service.
I sound like a broken record, but I urge you to look at hidden costs before you tout something as free. TANSTAAFL!
Re:Bandwidth... (Score:1)
leave the flock!
Individual freedom and personal responsibility!
They probbably just are incompetent..... (Score:1)
Absolutely. (Score:1)
It's one thing to have a policy banning the -use- of napster, it's a whole other thing to (effectively) ban dissemination of information about it. In fact, i'd even go so far as to say that your school is probably breaking some of its own laws, if not actual U.S. laws; take a look at their by-rules and such, see what you can find.
Re:Napster ban (Score:1)
Re:Use Google's cached version... (Score:1)