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.
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
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.
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
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.
- Limewire: Office Limewire P2P.
- 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.
Thanks to Oren Sreebny for starting this list of legitimate P2P uses.
