 "Photo: PETER HARRIS/MANITOU MESSENGER")
In an era shortly following the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there lived a people who either purchased or rented movies from places they called “video stores.” Many movie renters and buyers from this ancient time watched – and found to be rather hilarious – a cymbal-crashing preview sponsored by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.
The preview’s white words flashing before overly dramatized shady scenes read: “You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a movie. Downloading pirated films is stealing. Piracy. It’s a crime.”
Regardless of how comical this archaic preview seems, judging by the state of media piracy today, perhaps it is time for more previews of this sort to be invented.
File sharing, also known as illegal downloading, first came to public attention in the 1990s when the popular file sharing website Napster was shut down and sued for $20 billion ($100,000 per copyrighted song) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
While Napster has resurfaced as a legal website, their tired slogan “More Than Just a Music Store” and their desperate $5-7/month “Napster Plans” underscore the current unpopularity of legal ways to obtain music. Regardless of the example the RIAA made of Napster, the site’s original success paved the way for websites of a similar purpose.
According to the websites for the Entertainment Software Association, RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America, it is not only today’s music industry that reports staggering financial losses due to illegal downloading. According to current estimates, global piracy cost the gaming industry millions each year, the music industry $12.5 billion a year and the film industry over $20 billion annually. Based on these gargantuan figures, it is not unrealistic to guess that St. Olaf houses quite a few illegal downloaders.
Indeed, this supposition was confirmed by St. Olaf Webmaster Daniel Beach who said that in his 15 years at the college, the number of file sharing cases brought to his attention has peaked in the past three to four years. This year he has seen the highest number of cases. “So far this school year, I’ve received 56 notices of copyright infringements. From 2008-2009 we had 110 notices. From 2007-08 we had 91 notices,” Beach said.
Dean of Students Greg Kneser said that illegal downloading is not an issue that the college takes lightly, and points to the fact that St. Olaf produces a number of CDs itself, for Christmas Fest, choirs and the orchestra.
“I think what people don’t realize is that the college is actually a member of the RIAA,” Kneser said. “We’re a record company; we’re not just a college, and [we] get harmed by people who download and don’t buy [music] online.”
Because the college takes file sharing so seriously, there are a number of consequences for students who engage in this act, but first, they have to be caught. Beach explained the school’s process for tracing music, film and videogame file sharing, as well as virus spreading, to students.
“We don’t do any monitoring [for piracy among students], but there are various organizations [like] the Motion Picture Association of America … that are monitoring based on the IP address [Internet Protocol address: a numerical label] which every computer has,” Beach said. “Based on that, they contact me and give me the information: ‘this is the address, this is the song or movie being shared, this is the date or time.’ Once I get the notice, I trace it to the person.”
Roberta Lembke, Director of Information and Instructional Technologies, said in an e-mail message that the “Peer to Peer (P2P) File Sharing Action Plan” covers the school’s consequences for illegal downloading.
As stated by the P2P plan, the first offense for file sharing has no consequences for students other than an e-mail warning. The second offense results in the student’s personal laptop or computer being disconnected from the Internet and the campus network for one month. The third offense disconnects students for one full year, and if a fourth offense occurs, Internet and network suspension is permanent. Still, Beach points out, “student accounts (Moodle and SIS) still work for all of the systems on campus if they use a computer in any of the labs.”
Judging by the increasing number of cases, it’s hard to determine whether the current consequences are effective.
One student who wishes to remain anonymous admitted to violating this piracy policy twice so far this school year. While the student said they believe that the college should enforce consequences for illegal downloading, even adding that they warn others not to share files, something about the policy is not strong enough to stop them.
When asked if they plan to stop file sharing, the student said, “No, not really.” When asked what they would do if caught and faced with their Internet being permanently restricted, the student laughed and said, “[I would] probably transfer. That would really suck.”
Other students believe our campus’ policy is effective, and additionally, that it is fair. “As a general rule, [administration] punishments are a lot more mild than at other schools,” Sarah Chao ’11 said. “I think [our policy] is extremely lenient – coming from someone smart enough to not illegally download at St. Olaf.”
James Daly ’13 said he thinks this policy is effective, and questioned why students would bother to download media such as movies on campus. “There are a lot of movies you can check out from the Pause or the library,” Daly said. “Why [get movies] illegally?”
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