CPUC describes dangers of piracy

The University must address copyright infringement concerns immediately after receiving an official complaint against a user of the campus network, said Rita Saltz, OIT security expert, yesterday afternoon at a meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community.

Colleges and universities are hotbeds of piracy, said Clayton Marsh '85, a University lawyer, and the entertainment industry has begun to take more aggressive measures against individual violators of copyright law.

According to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the University is a service provider and not liable for violations of the law. The University is under no obligation to monitor its services for illicit action.

However, the University is obliged to act immediately when a complaint is brought against a member of the University community. These "take-down letters" or "infringement complaints" can be from individuals or major entertainment industry corporations, said Saltz and Marsh.

This academic year, the University has received several infringement letters. On Jan. 28, two complaints were filed, one against a student who had 314 music files and another against a student who had downloaded 1,022 files onto his computer, Saltz said.

Each week, the University receives one or two infringement letters, although there are sometimes as many as five or six, she added.

Punishment for copyright infringement can range from criminal prosecution to statutory penalties, for which the offender can pay up to $150,000 per file, Marsh said.

Infringement can range from deliberate to inadvertent file sharing, usually through peer-to-peer technology like Kazaa. Marsh said many students believe they will not be prosecuted for illegal file sharing because it is so prevalent.

Honor Code

Another issue at the CPUC meeting was a modification of the Honor Code. Due to concerns about fairness, Catherine Farmer '03, chair of the Honor Committee, suggested two changes.

When a charge is brought before the committee, two investigators are assigned to determine whether the case should be heard. Once the case proceeds to hearings, one investigator becomes the procedural advisor for the accused student and the other becomes the clerk of the hearing.

Many students have complained that having these two investigators take on roles during the hearing is unfair, Farmer said. They do not feel comfortable talking to the investigators and asking for advice.

Farmer suggested that instead of the investigators taking these positions, a representative of the Dean of Undergraduate Students would serve as the accused student's adviser. Also, Farmer recommended the investigators still be allowed to make a closing statement, but the student would be able to respond to their speeches.

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"The change to have the procedural advisor position changed from the investigator is an important change. It eliminates what I think is a real conflict of interest, certainly the appearance of bias to the student," said President Tilghman.

Currently, Tilghman imposes penalties and hears appeals. Instead, Farmer suggested the Dean of Undergraduate Students impose the penalty and the Dean of the College hear all appeals.

"I think it's important that the justice that is meted out here is consistent, the only way to achieve that is to have a single person review the appeals of the discipline committee and honor committee," Tilghman said.

"I think that both of them are good changes," she added.

The USG will vote on the two changes on Sunday night.

Affirmative action

A third issue on the agenda was the upcoming affirmative action cases involving the University of Michigan. Tilghman explained that the University took a stand on the case because it was directly relevant to its academic mission.

The University does not take a public position on an issue such as the war in Iraq because its role is to provide a public forum for discussion on the issue, Tilghman said.

"Michigan will affect the way in which universities which accept federal funds, and we are certainly one of those universities, mostly for research, conduct their admissions policy," Tilghman said.

Though the University does not have a points-based admission policy like the University of Michigan, it does take race into consideration.

"As one considers all the things about each individual, their gender, their race, their extracurricular activities, their geographic location, all these are taken into account," Tilghman said. "We believe that these are all important."

"A diverse class brings to the university experiences for the student body, points of view for the student body, that they will meet in the real world," Tilghman said.

The friend of the court brief the University filed along with several other schools asked the Supreme Court to support the Bakke precedent to consider race as one of many factors in admissions and cede to academic institutions the ability to make decisions on academic issues, she said.