University officials will make crucial policy changes that govern usage of the university computer network next Tuesday, effectively ending student access to the popular computer file sharing hub Direct Connect.
Direct Connect, better known to students as “DC++,” has provided students with thousands of copies of copyrighted songs, movies and other media free of charge for at least four years. But it has largely remained underground without any formal recognition by Office of Information Technology officials, despite operating for years on the university network.
That will change next week, OIT officials said in a conference call on Friday, due to a new rule in the university’s “Student Guidelines for Network Computer Use,” which will forbid students from running hubs like Direct Connect if they facilitate the sharing of copyrighted material. With no one running a hub on campus, students will not have a unified Direct Connect network to share files through the school.
OIT officials declined to comment on the specifics of why they decided to change the rule, but Charles, a university student who has run the Maryland hub for Direct Connect since February of 2002, said the shut-down was likely a response to warning letters from the music and recording industry sent out in April. He asked that his last name not be used to avoid possible legal problems.
He added that OIT officials received an anonymous letter from someone affiliated with the university aimed at blowing the whistle on illegal file-sharing. Although OIT officials declined to confirm receiving a letter, they stressed that they do not actively investigate the activity of students unless someone notifies them of a problem.
Charles said he received a copy of the letter while engaging in conversations with several OIT officials about his involvement with the file sharing server, conversations that led to an agreement that he would stop running the hub.
“Their actions are disappointing but understandable,” Charles said. “I cannot blame them. They are working within the system.”
Charles said he is currently not breaking any rules because he does not contribute copyrighted material into the system, and noted that existing guidelines already follow federal copyright laws by restricting students from providing or downloading copyrighted material. The new policy will further restrict network users by banning the trading of such material, he said.
The current university “Policy on the Acceptable Use of Information Technology” prohibits students from performing copyright infringement, which means anyone who is caught sharing copyrighted material is subject to a penalty. While servers like Direct Connect provide a medium for students to perform such activities, the guidelines do not prevent students from simply having Direct Connect software on their computer.
“There’s nothing wrong with the software, it’s the behavior that becomes illegal,” said OIT spokeswoman Phyllis Dickerson-Johnson.
The new rule also says that computers run on the network can not be the source of “persistent traffic,” which refers to anyone who is sending or receiving data over the network for an extended period of time, according to Charles.
“This rule allows them to terminate access to anyone running a hub or operating on a hub,” Charles said. “It provides justification for terminating access.”
OIT officials said that when the policy takes effect, they will begin monitoring the traffic level on computers plugged into the network in an effort to track file sharing activity of users. If the bandwidth is unusually high, there will be an initial warning followed by escalating action, including a possible referral to the Judicial Office of Student Conduct, officials said.
Two years ago, the Direct Connect hub was shut down in a similar situation when a student alerted OIT of its use on campus. Charles explained that the university did take any official action then because the hub operators acted on their own in response to the student’s allegations.
Ultimately Direct Connect was up and running on campus again, as new operators like Charles took on the responsibility.
By limiting the use of file sharing hubs like Direct Connect, the university hopes to encourage the use of its CDigix program, which gives students a legal way to download music for free. CDigix is offered at various schools throughout the country, and though it is more popular at this university than at most, it has not come close to the popularity of Direct Connect.
