Toss the keys to your Porsche at any college kid . . . and don’t act surprised when the cops clock him doing a buck-twenty-something out on the interstate.
University administrators and IT executives are relearning this age-old lesson in the wake of last week’s embarrassing revelation that hundreds of students nationwide – at Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley, among others – are being sued for using their school-granted access to the super-speedy Internet2 to illegally swap music and movies.
The students remain unidentified as of this writing, and, of course, the plaintiffs have yet to substantiate their allegations in a court of law. But presuming the civil complaints stick, it should prove enlightening to see how university officials deal with this latest escalation in the ongoing war between intellectual property owners and those who have a greater appetite for free stuff than they do respect for the law.
Escalation is the right word here because Internet2 raises the theft-loss stakes considerably for the recording and movie industries. A song that might take 5 minutes to download over a cable or DSL connection on the Internet requires a mere 20 seconds over Internet2. A DVD-quality movie reportedly can be snatched in less than 5 minutes, as opposed to well over an hour via your garden-variety broadband Internet connection.
Little wonder that the 405 students being sued for trafficking in stolen music had harvested and were offering to “share” an average of 2,300 songs apiece, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The Motion Picture Association of America last week was set to weigh in late with its own lawsuits.
The apologists for music and video thievery will argue that this episode offers more evidence of the futility of protecting old-world intellectual property rights in an era in which technological innovation reigns supreme. Of course, the apologists can afford to make such a case because it isn’t their property being stolen.
And while critics lambaste the entertainment industries for defending their property through lawsuits instead of embracing new business models, the recording and film executives need to live in the real world – as do the college administrators and IT officials whose participation in Internet2 has been sullied.
So how will academia respond? If recent precedent is any guide, you can expect the reactions to run the gamut.
As you may recall, a number of the nation’s elite business schools recently dealt with a security breach that found would-be students exploiting instructions found online to gain access to computer records about their applications. Some schools automatically rejected all those who peeked, while others were more lenient.
Harvard Business School was among those taking a hard-line. “Our mission is to educate principled leaders who make a difference in the world,” said the dean when the institution announced it would no longer consider admitting the 119 men and women who stole a look at their application status. “To achieve that, a person must have many skills and qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, sound judgment and a strong moral compass. Those who have hacked into this Web site have failed to pass that test.”
As for currently enrolled students who use school property to steal music and videos? . . . We’ll have to wait and see.
Personally, I had no problem with the universities that summarily bid farewell to those applicants who just couldn’t wait for that letter to arrive in the mailbox.
As for the ‘Net abusers, every university has an acceptable use policy and you can be certain not one condones theft. And not even a college kid can plead ignorance at this point.
So does expulsion seem too harsh?
Maybe, but it also seems richly deserved.
Need to tell me again why the RIAA is evil and music-swapping ain’t stealing? The address is buzz@nww.com.
