April 11, 2003

Harvard Ups the File-Sharing Ante

Here’s a new letter from Dean Lewis and a related Harvard Crimson article.


So they’re going to terminate network access for an entire year.  Sounds pretty severe to me.  This is going to get very, very interesting….


Won’t this just drive more people to systems where anonymity is protected by technology?  Or, is that not as possible as it sounds?  I know that many P2P systems make it difficult to figure out where a file request came from.  How many make it difficult to figure out who’s sharing a given set of files?  I’m pretty sure FreeNet and Blubster do this, too, but I’m not sure of the specifics.  Anyone want to help explain it to me?

* Filed by Derek Slater at 10:29 am under General news
* 1 Comment

One Response to “Harvard Ups the File-Sharing Ante”

  1. Paul Nakada
    April 11th, 2003 | 5:34 pm

    “Finally, we note that the University does not itself monitor the network for possible violations of the DMCA, but is required to respond to any complaints it receives from copyright holders.”

    Sounds more like ass covering than anything else. Makes sense, though. The punishment is a “non punishment.” All I have to do is to sell my computer to my roommate for $1 and I’m off sharing files again.

    Punishment at Harvard is getting kicked out. Period. I should know.

    The news here should be that Harvard doesn’t care about file sharing and is just giving it lip service.

    – Paul