P2P File Sharing

• HEA Legislative Update
• House Education and Labor Committee member names and phone numbers

College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (HR 4137)

• Entire Bill as introduced in the House November 9, 2007

• Bill with adopted amendments as of November 15, 2007

• Specific P2P language of concern to higher education contained in College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007, November 9, 2007
• Substitute copyright infringement language approved by the Senate, (SB 1642), July 26, 2007

What You Can Do

• ACTION ALERT February 15, 2008
• Talking points College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (updated March 3, 2008)

• Suggested Templates for your use in calls and faxes (updated March 3, 2008)

Member Letters to Congress

• MIT Letterto the Massachusetts delegation concerning proposed Peer-to-Peer language in the HEA bill.

Other Resources

• Higher education associations join EDUCAUSE in opposing House HEA Reauthorization language, March 11, 2008.
  House Letter and Senate Letter
• Letter to the Editor: Respect for Copyright Comes from Education
  EDUCAUSE Vice President, Mark Luker, responds to an opinion piece by Dan Glickman of the MPAA, December 10, 2007.
• Letter to Chairman George Miller and Ranking Member Howard McKeon
  This letter from EDUCAUSE requests that Section 494(a)(2) be deleted from H.R. 4137, November 27, 2007.
• Letter Opposing the Inclusing of the Entertainment Industry Proposal on Illegal File Sharing in the HEA
  This Joint Committe letter was sent to members of the House Education and Labor Committee concerning the College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007, November 7, 2007.
• Letter to Presidents from the Higher Education Members of the Joint Committee
  This Joint Committe letter encourages universities and colleges to continue to educate students on illegal filesharing and copyright infringement, October 15, 2007.
• The MPAA and Illegal File Sharing Among Students An interview with Daniel R. Glickman, President of the Motion Picture Association of America. Chronicle of Higher Education, October 12, 2007.

Legitimate P2P Uses

• Bibster: A project that aims to assist researchers in managing, searching, and sharing bibliographic metadata (e.g., from BibTeX files) in a peer-to-peer network.
• Blizzard Entertainment: Distributes World of Warcraft game updates using Blizzard Downloader (a combination BitTorrent/HTTP client).
• bt.etree.org: This site is provided by the etree.org community for sharing the live concert recordings of trade friendly artists.
• Gutenberg: The CD and DVD Project: Uses BitTorrent to distribute CD and DVD image files (ISO files).
• ibiblio: An online library and archive tht provides BitTorrent access to its content.
• Joost: A P2P Internet TV client.
• Librivox: Distributes audio recordings of books that are in the public domain via BitTorrent.
• LinuxTracker: A free linux download resource.
• NASA's Visible Earth Project: A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet.
• Skype: Uses a P2P telephony network.
• VMware's Virtual Appliance Marketplace: Offers a catalog of pre-built VMs that can be freely shared, made by members of the VM community.

Articles Describing Legitimate P2P Uses

• BitTorrent Inks Studio Distribution Deal (5/8/2006)
• Aiming to Unclog Legitimate P2P (8/7/2006)

Thanks to Oren Sreebny for starting this list of legitimate P2P uses.

Legal Action and Court Cases

RIAA v. The People: Four Years Later
August 2007
In this report the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provides a comprehensive look at the four-year litigation campaign waged by the RIAA against music fans.

RIAA Settlement Offer Letter
February 28, 2007
This is an anonymous copy of the RIAA letter sent to schools concerning students violating federal copyright laws by uploading and downloading music over school networks. The letter offers the student an opportunity to settle copyright infringement claims prior to any lawsuit action against the student.

How the RIAA Litigation Process Works
Vandenberg and Feliu LLP
This web site gives a detailed explanation of how the RIAA goes about suing alleged users of P2P file sharing software.

Letters to Congress Concerning the HEA Reauthorization

• Letter sent by USACM, to Congress regarding technology-based filtering of Internet traffic by universities; April 14, 2008
• MIT

Motion Picture and Recording Industry Associations of America and File Sharing

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

Network Security and File Sharing

Privacy and Security Risks of P2P File-Sharing
U.S. House of Representatives - May 15, 2003
The Committee on Government Reform released a report on the privacy and security risks posed by the use of popular peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Kazaa.

Universities and Illegal File Sharing

Infringement-Suppression Technologies: Summary Observations from a Common Solutions Group Workshop, Report Summary
- January 2008
In an effort to better understand the technologies available for copyright infringement control, the Common Solutions Group invited leading vendors of detection and suppression technologies to present and discuss the architecture and implementation of their products at an intensive workshop held at Virginia Tech on January 9, 2008

Letter Opposing the Inclusing of the Entertainment Industry Proposal on Illegal File Sharing in the HEA
- November 7, 2007
This Joint Committe letter was sent to members of the House Education and Labor Committee concerning the College Opportunity and Afforadability Act of 2007.

Letter to Presidents from the Higher Education Members of the Joint Committee
- October 15, 2007
This Joint Committe letter encourages universities and colleges to continue to educate students on illegal filesharing and copyright infringement.

Workshop on Requirements for Technological Control of Illegal File Sharing on College and University Networks
- October 3, 2007
This is the report from April 2007 technology workshop held under the direction of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities.

House Committee Holds Hearing on Filesharing on Campus
- June 5, 2007
The House Science and Technology Committee held a full committee hearing to discuss “The Role of Technology in Reducing Illegal Filesharing: A University Perspective.”

Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks
- November 2006
Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities paper concerning the liability issues surrounding illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing at colleges and universities.

File Sharing: Selected Universities Report Taking Action to Reduce Copyright Infringement
U. S. General Accounting Office - May 2004
A US General Accounting Office report to congressional requesters on file sharing and copyright infringement.

University Policies and Practices Addressing Improper Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
American Council on Education - April 2004
This paper is intended to provide college and university administrators with a variety of examples of actions colleges and universities are taking to address the problem of unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing.

New Survey Indicates Campus Attitudes Invite Software Piracy
Business Software Alliance - September 16, 2003
A recent survey indicates that educators are finding that piracy ethics are a real problem on campus.

Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks
American Council on Education - August 15, 2003
A white paper prepared by the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities.

Other Online Resources from EDUCAUSE

• Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities Technology Task Force