OIT cracks down on sharing

by Alejandra Molina
Assistant Editor

The use of music sharing software will soon be scarce at the University of La Verne as the Office of Information Technology will be tracking students, staff and faculty who use this software in the ULV system.

Six to eight weeks ago, the recording industry sent letters to colleges and universities stating that using and sharing copyrighted material is illegal, and there will be consequences if the software is used.

Using this software under the ULV network takes up a large portion of the bandwidth, causing the system to slow down.

Through the standard network traffic analyzer, the amount of incoming traffic that is being used and where this amount originates can be tracked down, said Clive Houston-Brown, chief information officer of information technology.

Problems mainly originate in the dorm network, said Houston-Brown, who has received calls from students complaining about the slow system.

If one megabyte connection consists of 900K of incoming traffic, it will slow down or prevent other students from logging onto the network.

The more students that log onto the software, the slower the system will be.

"It's like taking away a resource from another student," Houston-Brown said.

"The dorms only have a certain amount of bandwidth that can be used," he said.

Common music sharing software found on the ULV system include Kazaa, Morpheus and iMesh.

When someone purchases a CD, they are licensed to listen to it, Houston-Brown said.

By an individual opening a copy, he/she has made it available for others to copy it.

"If people are using these programs it will chew up the bandwidth," Houston-Brown said.

When students are found using the music and video sharing software, OIT informs the housing office. A housing staff member will warn the student and the program will have to be removed.

The student might also receive a courtesy call from OIT, warning them that they will be disconnected from the network. If the student still continues to use the software, he/she will be on the risk of loosing their housing contract.

Students can also use up the bandwidth by downloading research material, but Houston said there is not much requires a large use.

When students apply for on-line access from the ULV network they sign an account request form, which states that the use of music sharing software or downloading any copyrighted material is prohibited. Not all students read the whole statement, Houston-Brown said.

Students who have dial-up on their mode do not affect the bandwidth since they are not connected to the University's network.

File sharing also increases the bandwidth used in the network since programs and files are left out on the open for other students to use.

"If we could provide more bandwidth that would be great," he said. The cost for acquiring more bandwidth is expensive, he added .

The dorms are connected through DSL; using a T1 line would be faster but much more costly. With T1 connection the cost per month would be from $700 to $1,000, as opposed to the cost of DSL which is on the low hundreds.