An unnamed StuCo representative has informed me of this news:

slightly altered to protect any individuals or organizations that may be mentioned


The reason I say that UMR is attempting to get sued is because of the questionable legality of scanning personal computers to find materials.

That's not legal.

New tentative policy:
1st DMCA violation - 1-2 weeks of no network access, short course on blackboard
2nd - All network access gone for 1 month to half semester, blackboard short course, research papers for student affairs, community responsibility hours
3rd - Long term network outage (none at all), another course, scholastic probation, disciplinary actions by student affairs

Also, there may be a $100 administrative fee for each violation.

This is all tentative, it's policy that is being considered and that is already mostly in place in Columbia.

According to Charles the stuco exec, all of this info will be in the Miner this Thursday. It will probably be approved within 1-2 weeks and will most likely go into effect immediately.

I don't see how the University would get sued for this... it's covering its own ass with regards to the DMCA.

Also, I think that in the rush to answer questions, Charles responded too quickly to the question about being scanned. DMCA violation notices are only sent when a copyright holder catches you downloading/uploading their copyrighted work. They can't see inside of our network, they can just see what enters and leaves it at best. The University is not the rights holder so they will not be sending notices as is implied by what you have posted.

My point exactly. I can't wait for the ensuing legal battles. Hell, didn't the RIAA try this kind of shit before and get shot down?

You can not scan my computer for previously downloaded materials.

I updated my post with the following:

Also, I think that in the rush to answer questions, Charles responded too quickly to the question about being scanned. DMCA violation notices are only sent when a copyright holder catches you downloading/uploading their copyrighted work. They can't see inside of our network, they can just see what enters and leaves it at best. The University is not the rights holder so they will not be sending notices as is implied by what you have posted.

Neither is having illegal stuff on your computer, lol...

This is the first I've heard of anything about this, but I can't imagine how they'd scan everyone's computers for "illegal stuff". Possibly open shares, which doesn't really sound illegal to me. If you don't want others to find your illegal stuff, don't have it in an open share... Oh wait...

Port blocking router anyone?

and Linux?

First, I doubt they'll be scanning for existing illegal stuff.

Second, if they did, they'd probably just scan open shares, and if you get caught, that's your own damn fault.

If the policy says that the punishments are for DMCA violation notices, then you most certainly can NOT be punished by the university if the university scans your shares. DMCA violation notices can only originate from the original rights holder or their legal counsel. It would be illegal for the University to enforce others' copyrights under the DMCA. That, and who is the university to decide what is in violation of the DMCA and what is not? Such a system, if automated, would not be put into place - according to one of our top security guys in IT, it would be worthless anyways as there are too many ways around automatic detection of copyrighted files.

Wait, is this just on-campus? You make it sound like they're removing the ethernet outlets in the dorm rooms to keep them from using UMR internet. Or do they mean Miner Mail? Sorry for the dumb questions.

Yeah, just on campus. It did sound like your login would be disabled on all campus machines too, which would suck.

IT can shut off your connection at the port level in the newer dorms, and they can disallow your machine from accessing the network (blacklisting your registered mac addresses).

I also thought I'd add that I don't think that the number of DMCA violation notices will be increasing as a result of this. They're just adjusting the severity of receiving these violations, because as I said, these notices can not originate from UMR unless the infringing content belongs to UMR / the UM system.

The current policy is basically a slap on the wrist: write a letter stating that you deleted all of the content that is illegal on your computer, that you deleted all p2p apps, and that you won't do it again. They don't verify that you actually did steps 1 and 2 fyi.

I doubt they'll block you from logging on on campus machines, but they probably will block your MAC and/or shut off your port.

I agree that they probably won't disallow you from logging into campus machines... too many teachers require email/blackboard use for this to be feasible. Also, how would the student complete the blackboard short course if they can't log into any computer from school that can access blackboard?

Basically if you aren't getting DMCA notices now, then you shouldn't be getting them in the future (unless IT lets the rights holders onto the campus network).

I doubt IT will do that. IT for the most part couldn't care less what we do. They know that piracy happens, and punishing people is just too much work. They would just rather not deal with it, and any piracy taking place within the campus network is overlooked because it keeps bandwidth on campus. But, student affairs, and UM lawyers do care about piracy and DMCA violations, and are basically going to make IT comply with their policies whether they like it or not