Harvard Media Pirates, Beware?

According to Harvard’s Computer Rules and Responsibilities agreement, a student caught ille-gally downloading songs or movies may have his or her network access revoked. But the experi-ences of two Ryan Adams fans from Wisconsin and Florida might give Harvard downloaders more to worry about.

Robert Thomas of Milwaukee and Jared Chase Bowser of Jacksonville are accused of posting tracks from “Jacksonville City Nights,” the latest album from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, on an internet fansite before the album was released.

They are the first to be indicted under a provision of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA) of 2005. The act specifically targets those who distribute media before it is com-mercially distributed, a huge problem for the music industry.

“[Pre-release] piracy is a really big deal,” Samuel D. G. Jacoby ’08, who is also a Crimson editor and one of the heads of WHRB’s Hip-Hop department, writes in an e-mail. “You’ll find copies of major releases floating around [on the web] sometimes months in advance.”

Under FECA, Thomas and Bowser could face up to eleven years each in prison.

This increasing aggressiveness on the part of both the music industry and the U.S. government raises questions about the role played by universities in monitoring, discouraging, or disciplining students who download or distribute media files.

Though internet law experts think that downloaders may find themselves harried more and more often, Harvard administration officials say the university doesn’t play any active role in discour-aging downloading to begin with. Thus, the future is uncertain for Harvard downloaders.



THE POWERS THAT BE

John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, is not surprised by the harsh punishment faced by Thomas and Bowser. “Increasingly, we’ve seen very stringent penalties for copyright related law-breaking,” he says. “The entertain-ment industry has been quite aggressive.”

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has enthusiastically endorsed the in-dictment. “Everyone who participates in the creation of music is especially gratified by this prosecution,” writes RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol in a press release.

But as the recording industry takes the initiative, Assistant Dean of the College John “Jay” Elli-son, who is Secretary of the Administrative Board, writes in an e-mail that Harvard does “not monitor internet usage and usually [finds] out about violations when representatives from the industry contact us.”

Institutions like the RIAA can obtain the IP addresses of downloaders who use peer-to-peer pro-grams like Limewire. In the case of students, the RIAA then sends a complaint to the university, which can match a name to an IP address. Beyond that, RIAA spokesperson Jenni Engebretsen will not discuss any particular steps the RIAA takes in tracking illegal downloading. “The RIAA does not comment on the specifics of our investigative processes,” she says.

Senior Associate Provost and University Chief Information Officer Dan Moriarty explains that once Harvard has received the information it identifies the IP holder and “sends a notice of al-leged [copyright] infringement.” The student is told to stop and the illegal material is taken down.

Though Harvard’s initial warning is essentially toothless, Ellison adds that “with a second warn-ing, a student’s access to the network is suspended for one year.”



CRIME, PUNISHMENT, MORE CRIME

Will C. Nygard ‘08 recounts an experience that conforms to this hypothetical process. “The first time I was caught was in October [of 2004],” he says. “What happened was that a third party in-formed [the College administration] and then they told me that I was downloading.” He says he received “just a warning.”

But Nygard continued illegally downloading, and was soon faced with repercussions. “The sec-ond time they caught me, they took away my network access for a year,” he says. “Any modem registered under my name I could not access the network with.”

Nygard characterizes the whole process as impersonal. He was never asked to speak with any administration officials, in fact. “They just wrote me strongly-worded e-mails and cut off my internet,” he says.

Nygard says he is not surprised that he was caught. “It was my first time ever having access to high speed internet,” he recalls. “I was downloading quite a bit . . . stuff I shouldn’t have been downloading, like new movies and stuff.”

Nygard says that he found ways to navigate his year-long expulsion from Harvard’s network and that the experience has made him smarter—if not entirely reformed.

“I download T.V. shows,” he says. “But I don’t download anything that they go after. I download the occasional song, but not, you know, Harry Potter [and the Prisoner of Azkaban].”

Elsewhere on campus, the attitude towards potential repercussions of downloading is much the same: students understand that downloading may have consequences, but it is a risk that they are largely willing to take.

A freshman—who asks that his name be withheld, for fear of repercussions—checks his iTunes and says “I’ve downloaded over one thousand songs.”

His selections are largely typical college fare. He says he discovered the band Death Cab For Cutie through downloading. “I downloaded six of their albums just to see if I could,” he says.

He says that he’s familiar with Harvard’s policy regarding illegal downloading. “I had to read it when I got here and put my computer on the network,” he recalls.



EVERYBODY’S DOING IT

Outside of those administration officials who don’t come closer than a “strongly worded e-mail,” Harvard’s attitude towards downloading seems neutral, or even permissive.

The anonymous freshman says “I have a music professor who will play a piece and then say, ‘You’ll have it downloaded by tomorrow, won’t you?’ And then he adds on, ‘legally, of course,’ and meanwhile someone has their hand up at the back of the class saying ‘I’ve downloaded it already.’”

The freshman says he doesn’t fear legal consequences. “There’s a feeling that everyone does it, so to pick on one person would be unfair,” he says. “It’s similar to being worried about the con-sequences of drinking underage while you’re at Harvard. Everybody does it, so you’re not wor-ried.”

The prosecution of Thomas and Bowser could have far-reaching implications for how the U.S. government and the recording industry fights illegal downloading.

Palfrey, of the Berkman Center, says that this case could be particularly important because it is the first time that FECA will be put to the test. “It’s called a case of first impression,” he says. “You’ll obviously see it very carefully tried.”

Palfrey says that universities like Harvard “have a lot of the data that make it easier for the copy-right holders to enforce the law.” As a result, they are closely tied to the outcomes of cases like the one involving Thomas and Bowser.

“The universities have been put in a hard position by the copyright battles,” Palfrey adds.