Tag: file-sharing

[ICPL 2008] Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge

Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge was our after-dinner speaker. Gigi talked about the file-sharing provisions in the recently passed Higher Education Reauthorization Act and how the work that the higher-ed community did last year to get those provisions struck from the original bill language didn’t hold up when the language reappeared in a subsequent version. … Continue reading “[ICPL 2008] Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge”

Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge was our after-dinner speaker. Gigi talked about the file-sharing provisions in the recently passed Higher Education Reauthorization Act and how the work that the higher-ed community did last year to get those provisions struck from the original bill language didn’t hold up when the language reappeared in a subsequent version. She contrasted that with the success of the copyright-reform community in getting the FCC to censure Comcast for interfering with the use of BitTorrent by their customers.

Gigi noted several differences in the two efforts and came up with some recommendations for future efforts in organizing activity around legislative policy efforts, including keeping constant pressure on telling the story to mainstream media, mobilizing the grass roots, enlisting allies from the commercial sector, and more (wish I had had a note pad with me at dinner).

Gigi also proposed forming a task force of university presidents to work on national IT policy issues for higher education. Sounds like a very timely idea to me. It was a great talk that left me energized about poliy issues for the first time in a long while.

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Does anybody other than me see this as incredibly ironic?

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Legal music is (gasp) appealing to youth!

According to a report about a new study: Almost half of all “tweens” (kids between age 9 and 14) who consume digital music get it from the iTunes Store, according to a survey from the NPD group released this week. I always have said that one of the things that would bring down the amount … Continue reading “Legal music is (gasp) appealing to youth!”

According to a report about a new study:

Almost half of all “tweens” (kids between age 9 and 14) who consume digital music get it from the iTunes Store, according to a survey from the NPD group released this week.

I always have said that one of the things that would bring down the amount of illegal downloading would be good convenient legal sources. The other thing would be to get the prices down further.

MPAA admits it miscounted how many students download movies

In 2005 the Motion Picture Association of America released a study where it estimated that 44 percent of the industry’s domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students. That figure has been widely cited as a reason why Congress should act to require higher-ed institutions to install software (which is itself not … Continue reading “MPAA admits it miscounted how many students download movies”

In 2005 the Motion Picture Association of America released a study where it estimated that 44 percent of the industry’s domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students. That figure has been widely cited as a reason why Congress should act to require higher-ed institutions to install software (which is itself not all that ready for prime-time) to keep students from illegally downloading movies and music.

Steve Worona points out this AP news item:

But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a «human error» in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

In the article Educause VP Mark Luker goes on to point out:

…it does not account for the fact that more than 80 percent of college students live off campus and are not necessarily using college networks. He says 3 percent is a more reasonable estimate for the percentage of revenue that might be at stake on campus networks.

«The 44 percent figure was used to show that if college campuses could somehow solve this problem on this campus, then it would make a tremendous difference in the business of the motion picture industry,» Luker said. The new figures prove «any solution on campus will have only a small impact on the industry itself.

In a related note, the Common Solutions Group released a summary of our meeting two weeks ago with the three major vendors of software that claims to supress illegal file sharing. The findings?

Although each of the technologies we discussed works in the narrow technical sense, it is the sense of CSG participants in the discussion that current products cannot stop all (or even most) unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material without interfering with the efficiency of the networks essential to research and teaching in higher education.