Harsher Penalties Sought for Piracy

It’s been more than 300 years since the noted mutineer pirate John Quelch was hanged on the banks of the Charles River. And while the riverside gallows have long since been dismantled, a new call for harsher punishment of piracy—of the digital kind—was leveled against universities last Friday by the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property.

Rep. Howard L. Berman, a Democrat who represents California’s 28th district, encompassing Hollywood and nearby areas rich in entertainment-based industries, said that “current law isn’t giving universities enough incentives to stop piracy,” according to a statement released by the congressman’s office.

But network administrators at Harvard said this week that they are content with the University’s standing policy.

“We don’t police our networks,” said Harvard’s associate dean for Internet technology, Larry M. Levine. “Our mission is to provide an expensive commodity as equitably as possible.”

Berman’s remarks come in the wake of a new initiative launched by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) to combat illegal file sharing on college campuses. With the initiative, the organization is trying to respond to a threefold jump in RIAA warning notices sent to universities this academic year, according to an RIAA press release.

“Many schools have turned a blind eye to piracy,” Berman said in his statement.

The extent of Harvard’s enforcement currently involves forwarding RIAA warning notices to students that the organization has found illegally possessing copyrighted material, Levine said.

As of this academic year, 44 notices have been sent to Harvard students, RIAA spokeswoman Jenni R. Engebretsen said yesterday.

The RIAA also sends pre-litigation notices—warning students of an impending lawsuit—to students that the organization believes have downloaded music illegally. No Harvard student has received such a notice this academic year, according to Engebretsen.

Harvard’s current policy states that if a student receives two notices, his or her network privileges are revoked, Levine said. He added that cases where students had to have network privileges revoked were very rare.

In his remarks, Berman asked rhetorically, “Since universities are the only parties that can monitor file sharing...—shouldn’t they bear some responsibility for monitoring piracy that takes place over their networks?”

Levine said in response that a hypothetical policy that would allow Harvard administrators to monitor students’ files “smacks of being Big Brother.”

Berman also suggested that universities follow the example of some institutions that have “used purely technological approaches to fight piracy, such as restricting the operation of peer-to-peer applications” that allow students to download files illegally.

Levine said he also opposed this option, noting that many peer-to-peer applications were difficult to find because they often encrypt their traffic. And some peer-to-peer programs, he added, are used for “perfectly legal purposes.”

—Staff writer Alaxander B.Cohn can be reached at abcohn@fas.harvard.edu