[388] in resnet
Re: NetPD and DMCA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael A. Woods)
Wed Nov 14 15:57:25 2001
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Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 12:46:42 -0800
Reply-To: Resnet Forum <RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu>
From: "Michael A. Woods" <mike@HOUSING.SDSU.EDU>
To: RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.4.40.0111141058330.29230-100000@sage.plu.edu>
Point of fact:
OSP's are not required to adhere to any provision of the DMCA. The
DMCA does not supersede previous legislation, it only extends an
OSP's PROTECTION from liability. Failure to act on properly delivered
complaints from NetPD or any other company does not make a university
liable for copyright infringement. Failure to act only means that
the university can not claim PROTECTION from liability under the
articles of the DMCA.
Do not let articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education, claims by
NetPD, actions of other universities, opinions on listservs (even
mine), or the general hysteria surrounding this issue prevent you
from discovering the facts. Read the law. Not just the DMCA but all
other copyright legislation that may be relevant.
You may agree with me that these files should not be traded without
compensation to the copyright holder, but that agreement has little
relevance in a court of law. I see no reason not to voluntarily
assist NetPD in their attempts to prevent these files from being
shared, but no university has yet been legally compelled to do so,
and no part of the DMCA says that they must.
Don't believe the hype.
rgds,
mike
>On Wed, 14 Nov 2001, Pat Kava wrote:
>
>> NetPD is a watchdog company that detects student MP3 file sharers and
>> ...snip...
>> file names. Rodney J. Petersen of the University of Maryland at
>> College Park argued that the university has no responsibility to
>> respond to the letters since its network is just a channel for the
>> copyrighted material. He said the quarrel should be between students
>> and the copyright owners. Furthermore, he said the DMCA requires that
>> the letters must clearly state that the company is an agent of the
>> copyright holders--something the NetPD letters do not. Letter content
>> and notification is approved by NetPD's clients before being sent out,
>> according to Ward. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 7 November
>> 2001)
>
>For anyone who is not on the SANS Unisog list, you might be interested to
>know that Bruce Ward the Technical Director of NetPD has joined the list.
>In fact, he has been getting a lot of feedback from schools around the US
>about the problem we have seen with their methods. It appears that
>starting later this week they will begin sending out all of their
>notifications with PGP signatures, thereby finally "signing" their notices
>and satisfying one of the requirements they failed to meet thus far. I
>think they still need to clarify their status as an agent of the various
>copyright holders, but they certainly seem to be trying to work with the
>schools to do this properly.
>
>I have to disagree with at least one of Mr. Petersen's comments above
>about the responsibility of the University to respond to the letters. If
>NetPD (or another similar agency) follows the proper procedure laid out in
>the DMCA, it is pretty clear that we are responsible for responding to
>their notification and passing that information to the alleged offender
>(student or otherwise). If we do not perform that action we (as an
>institution) become liable. How the copyrighted material should be
>eliminated or blocked seems to be a little unclear, but if the student (or
>staff member) responds and removes the material it sure keeps it simple.
>As for the second comment, I agree that the quarrel should be between the
>copyright holder and the alleged offender, but the DMCA does not let us
>avoid involvement.
>
>David P. Allen
>Network Manager
>Pacific Lutheran University
>
>{ (253) 535-7524 | "...one of the main causes of the fall of }
>{ allendp@PLU.edu | Rome was that, lacking zero, they had no }
>{ www.plu.edu/~allendp | way to indicate successful termination of }
>{ | their C programs." --Robert Firth }
>
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--
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Michael A. Woods
RezCon Coordinator
Housing and Residential Life Office
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Dr.
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