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During the past 2 years, USF has had an agreement with Ruckus to offer streaming content to all students. This agreement was signed with no cost to USF or to the students, and put forth as an alternative to illegal downloading of music. As you may be aware, the Ruckus service has closed its door and is no longer operational.
Even though Ruckus is no longer available, music streaming has evolved and now students and staff alike have more options. Here are some alternative sites for streaming music:
[http://lastfm.com LastFM]
[http://pandora.com Pandora]
[http://slacker.com Slacker]
They operate slightly different than the Ruckus player.
- You are not allowed to build specific playlists with the free versions. Instead, the player keeps track of your taste in music by allowing you to use “Love It” or “Hate It” type buttons with every song. It uses those selections to improve your playlist.
- You are only allowed to skip a certain number of songs with the free version.
- You have the option to purchase songs that you like.
- iPhone applications available for all of the above sites.
“Universities could lose financial aid for students if they are not able to reduce the amount of illegal file-sharing taking place on their college networks, according to a new education bill introduced into Congress on Friday,” reports PC World. “The bill, under a section titled ‘Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention,’ would require all institutions participating in the financial aid program to take further measures in both displaying and enforcing its policies on illegal downloading. Specifically, the bill would force universities to ‘develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution’ as well as ‘explore technology-based deterrents’ to illegal P2P sharing. Many believe that such ‘alternatives’ could include university-wide subscriptions to services like Napster or Ruckus an ad-supported music service that offers free music to college students.”
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005906.html
NBC released the pilot for 4 of the new fall lineup, downloadable for free from the Amazon website. You will need an Amazon account, and then download their “Amazon Unbox” video player, but I had my test 1GB download of Journeyman playing on my PC in about 10 minutes.
Read the article on [http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/09/10/download-nbc-fall-tv-pilots-for-free-from-amazon The Download Squad]
Seattle man accused of purchasing $73,000 worth of merchandising using fraudulent identity and stolen financial information from at least 83 individuals. Just one example of what may happen when you simply install P2P file sharing software on your machine without being extremely careful about what you are sharing.
The situation is the result of personal information being leaked onto these networks by individuals who fail to take the proper precautions for securing their computers during P2P sessions. Popular P2P clients such as Kazaa, LimeWire, BearShare, Morpheus and FastTrack are designed to let users quickly download and share music and video files.
Read on: [http://tinyurl.com/2wfctk Article on computerworld.com]
Last July 18, the [http://www.riaa.com/newsitem.php?news_year_filter=&resultpage=&id=780E8751-0E03-4258-D651-F991B66E1708 RIAA revealed] that it would send 408 more “pre-litigation” notices to 23 Universities previously not targeted by the organization. According to the press release, the agency will be extending its grace period which allows the students to settle out of court for $3,000, since some of the recipients could be in summer vacation and unreachable until they return to classes in the Fall semester.
As expected, the comments against the RIAA campaign against University students [http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12855 continue].
Looks like the University of Kansas decided to adopt a “one strike and you’re out” policy. Anyone caught downloading copyrighted information will permanently loose their network access.
Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.
[http://www.resnet.ku.edu University of Kansas ResNet]
Just like any other piece of software you install on your computer, users of P2P applications must be careful and configure their sharing folders properly. Otherwise, you may be sharing more than you asked for.
“… nearly 17,000 Pfizer employees will receive a heartwarming letting dictating that their identities have been compromised on a P2P network.”
[http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1496 Slyck News - Pfizer P2P Security Breach]
Sometimes pirates are idealists. Down with the RIAA! The recording industry is dying, long live P2P!
Did you know that illegal filesharers don’t care whether the work they are distributing comes from a major label or an independent label? Want to know more?
Read on
[http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20070531.html Music piracy - ten inconvenient truths]
From the [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070607-congress-riaa-and-universities-prepare-for-p2p-arms-race.html Ars Technica website]:
The heated debate over file sharing and the role that American colleges and universities should take in response to it ratcheted up a notch Tuesday as industry players and college and university reps gathered in DC to discuss the problem and potential solutions in a hearing before the House Committee on Science and Technology.”
Welcome to the new “Filesharing at USF” Blog. This page will contain the latest information on filesharing at USF, tutorials, and news articles involving or affecting the USF community.
==Permanent Pages==
[http://filesharing.blog.usf.edu/usf-and-the-digital-millennium-copyright-act USF and the DMCA]
[http://filesharing.blog.usf.edu/campus-downloading-video Video: Illegal Downloads on Campus]
==Blog Entries==
Latest blog entries begin after this announcement on the main page.
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