Winthrop Junior Accused of Illegal File Sharing

A Harvard student was threatened with the termination of his network access by his senior tutor’s office last week for “copyright infringement” through the file-sharing service Gnutella.

Aaron M. Koller ’03 was told in a letter from Winthrop House Senior Tutor Courtney Bickel Lamberth that Harvard had become aware that “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadassssss Song,” an episode of the television series “The Simpsons,” had been transmitted through Koller’s computer, or one which he had been logged into, on April 16 of this year.

“As far as I knew, this was the precursor to an indictment,” Koller said.

Gnutella follows in Napster’s footsteps as a file-sharing service through which one computer can access files on another—a system often used with copyrighted material. While Napster involves the transfer of music files, Gnutella allows the transfer of videos.

Koller said that by April 16 he already owned the file, meaning someone else must have uploaded it from his hard drive that day.

“I can’t know for sure if it actually occurred,” he said.

In an e-mail to The Crimson, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 estimated that fewer than 10 students have received such letters from their senior tutor’s office in the past year.

Lewis said the University does not actively search out copyright infringers, but must take action if copyright owners contact the school with the Internet protocol (IP) number of the computer used to infringe the copyright.

According to Jinger Zhao ’04, projects coordinator of the Harvard Computer Society, each computer on a network has its own unique IP number. When a computer seeks to download a file from another computer, it sends a request from its IP address. The IP address of the computer from which it seeks to download can also be tracked.

Last fall, the College rejected the music group Metallica’s request that Harvard block student access to Napster. “Selective blocking of Internet sites would be inconsistent with Harvard’s policy of open access to the net and individual responsibility for computer use,” Lewis said in an advertisement printed in The Crimson on Sept. 29, 2000.

Lewis made it clear then, however, that Harvard would not “protect users who engage in infringement.”

“Federal law requires that Harvard terminate network access of any use who is found to be a ‘repeat infringer’ of copyrights, based on information provided by copyright owners,” he said. “We must and will abide by that law.”

Koller said he discussed the situation with Lamberth, who told him that a few Harvard students had received similar letters in the past, but that Koller’s letter was possibly the first one involving Gnutella.

Koller said he does not expect disciplinary action, but added that he has deleted the video files on his hard drive.

“[I’m] not going to be using Gnutella or whatever,” he said. “It’s not worth the risk, even for legitimate purposes.”