The Download Dilemma

Peer Pressure

Find out more about both sides of the download dilemma: publicknowledge.org is the source for what the public advocacy group is doing to make it safe to swim in the "emerging digital culture." downhillbattle.org is a nonprofit organization working to support "participatory culture," as is eff.org.

The music industry's efforts and points of view can be found on riaa.com. The motion picture association Web site, mpaa.org, provides in-depth information on the studio side of things.

Because the law is unclear, UCLA campus counsel Amy Blum says the university has taken steps to protect itself not only under the safe-conduit provision of the law but has also put policies in place to comply with other parts of the DMCA, including requiring copyright infringers to remove illegally downloaded material and to take action against repeat offenders.

Since the Supreme Court ruled last June that peer-to-peer companies like Grokster could be held responsible for the copyright theft on their networks, Sohn says that illegal file-sharing programs are all “going down the drain anyway.” As a result, she says, it is unfair of the entertainment industry to pressure universities to actively do something about the problem. It is also the reason UC and UCLA officials have decided to offer students legal ways to download music and movies that the student would pay for instead of the university.

UCLA has signed contracts with Apple iTunes, Cdigix and Mindawn to offer students, faculty and staff discounted music, movies, video and game software programs, and other benefits via Get Legal, a collaboration among UCLA’s Communications Technology Services and the offices of Housing and Hospitality Services, Information Technology, and Student Affairs. Users of the legal download services will pay roughly $1 per download, depending on content and program used. Bruins also enjoy some customized savings. Apple iTunes, for example, will charge its usual 99 cents per song but will rebate 5 percent of all UCLA purchases to the campus, which will be shared equally among student councils. Mindawn, which specializes in royalty-free music from independent artists, is waiving its upload fee for UCLA students.

That should mollify Big Business, at least somewhat. But now government is taking a closer look at digital piracy as well. How universities respond to piracy has come under scrutiny by congressional lawmakers who want to see them do more to fight the problem.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) ’62, LL.B. ’65 thinks a university is in a better position to defend itself legally if it takes active steps to discourage piracy. “It is not the old days of sharing a CD with a friend,” he explains. “It threatens the whole underpinnings of intellectual properties and has tremendous consequences. You don’t want to take down networks or ban peer-to-peer systems or create a governmental role in surveillance, and you want to maintain fundamental concepts of fair use. But it is not fair use if it is being pirated.”

In December, Berman and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, requested that the Government Accountability Office conduct a study of the steps universities have taken to combat piracy. The subcommittee also plans to look at updating some of the laws governing the licensing of music to make more songs available on legal peer-to-peer services.

The download dilemma is a moving target, however. The battleground over peer-to-peer file-sharing is widening to television. Daily Bruin news editor Shaun Bishop says he knows of students who now like to download and share high-quality copies of popular TV shows like Lost, 24 and Desperate Housewives, often made within a day of the episode’s airing.

This drama is far from over. Neither the university, nor its students, nor their parents are out of the digital piracy woods.

“I think a lot of students have that mentality of ‘it won’t happen to me,’ but the scary thing is that it can,” concludes Betty Yee ’08, a student rep who sat on the UCLA committee that developed the Get Legal service. “Students are smart, but sometimes they don’t realize that some issues have the possibility of impacting their lives in a huge way.”

Published Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM