Becoming Part of the Solution ---
   Students Join Record Industry to Curb Illegal File-Sharing.

By Sarmad Ali
April 6, 2006
Page B5

THE RECORD INDUSTRY'S nearly three-year effort to clamp down on illegal
file-sharing among college students has done little to stop the practice
on campuses. Now, in an unusual reversal, a handful of students themselves
are joining the fight against copyright abuse by their peers.

Universities also are taking stronger measures to both clamp down and
offer students alternatives. The University of California, Los Angeles,
for example, has started offering legal file-sharing services on campus.

An increasing number of students still use peer-to-peer networks for
illegal downloads of copyrighted music, citing convenience, greater
selection and the simple fact that they are free. In the U.S., the average
number of peer-to-peer users who logged into file-sharing networks rose to
more than 6.9 million in December from more than 5.5 million a year
earlier, says BigChampagne LLC, which tracks peer-to-peer file-sharing
networks.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the music-industry trade
group, believes most illegal file-sharers are students, mainly because
they have more time to spend on downloading and often don't have enough
spending money to buy legal music. In addition, they typically have free
access to broadband Internet, which is essential for downloading and
swapping big music files.

Some students, however, are trying to become part of the solution by
educating their peers about copyright laws, providing ways to seek legal
advice and pointing to legitimate file-sharing services.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, two students launched an
electronic music library that their peers can use to listen to at least
2,000 contemporary and classical CDs through MIT's cable-TV network. MIT
hasn't joined with legal music-service providers. Instead, its students
can access an internal music store dubbed Library Access to Music Project,
or LAMP.

LAMP consists of 16 jukeboxes that students or professors can control and
use to play their own CDs. The university doesn't charge students for
listening to music. However, MIT pays royalty fees to organizations that
collect licensing and royalty fees for composers and artists. The
downsides are that the music is available only on MIT's campus and only
students and professors with televisions or computer TV cards can listen.

At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, two students founded a Web site
called freeculture.org that aims to organize campuses nationwide by
educating students on copyright issues. The group has 25 members who work
with students at colleges from Maine to California, and some abroad as
well. The group also has joined a social network called CopyNight, which
organizes gatherings of people interested in changing copyright law.

Alvin Fong, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has
been helping students accused of downloading illegally to find lawyers and
settle lawsuits with the music industry. Mr. Fong was among 40 Carnegie
Mellon students sued by the RIAA last year.

Ever since the music industry started to sue students over illegal
downloads, universities themselves have become more vigilant in policing
downloads and encouraging students to use alternatives such as legal
online music stores. More than 90 universities have joined with legitimate
music services, where students often either have a monthly subscription or
pay per download. In some cases, the service is subsidized by universities
and students don't have to pay directly.

The University of Delaware has started taking serious action against
students who download copyrighted songs and movies illegally, charging
them up to $70 to delete copyrighted materials obtained without payment.
The university's Web site has links to 14 legal music and movie sites such
as www.epitonic.com and www.purevolume.com . Most of them allow students
to listen and download music free.

UCLA is using a homegrown piece of software the university calls the
Quarantine Approach that automatically deactivates copyright violators'
accounts by putting them in "quarantine," prohibiting them from accessing
external networks until they sign an electronic statement showing they
have deleted all illegally downloaded files. UCLA's proprietary system,
produced by the school's administrative staff, acts when the university
receives claims of online copyright infringement from outside sources.

Texas A&M University-Kingsville is using software called CopySense Network
Appliance that compares the material of the files swapped over
peer-to-peer networks with that in a database of copyrighted works. If
CopySense detects a match, it immediately prevents the files from being
transferred or shared.