The Fairfax papers have a story today about the University of New South Wales considering stopping its free wi-fi internet for students because so many students are using it to download illegal files:
The University of NSW has threatened to axe its free wireless
internet service because students are bringing in their laptops and
using them to download pirated music, movies and games.
The university's director of IT, Michael Kirby-Lewis, said
complaints about illegal downloading by students had risen from one
or two a month to "a number a day", putting UNSW and students at
risk of litigation for copyright infringement.
UNSW has been issuing fines of up to $1000 to students who use
its free wireless network for illegal downloading. Money generated
by the fines is donated to fund student facilities around
campus.
Sabiene Heindl, general manager of the music industry's
anti-piracy arm, Music Industry Piracy Investigations, said
research by the Australian Recording Industry Association had found
one in three under 24-year-olds downloaded music illegally.
She pointed to recent research by German online traffic
management company iPoque that found 57 per cent of all Australian
internet traffic was generated by peer-to-peer networks, which
contain mainly pirated content.
Heindl welcomed the decision by UNSW to educate students about
the risks of illegal downloading but denied the music industry had
threatened the university with legal action.
On Friday afternoon, Kirby-Lewis sent a note to all students
warning that the viability of the university's free wireless
network had been "placed under threat" due to incidents of illegal
downloading.
Students caught engaging in the practice would have their
wireless access blocked for the remainder of the session and be
subject to formal disciplinary action including fines of up to
$1000.
Read more here (from The Age). To be honest I can't blame the UNSW for thinking about taking this action - not only is the university potentially leaving itself open to litigation against it, but the numbers of people using the network in this way would be placing a strain on the network itself. However, at its core this is merely a sympton of a much bigger challenge facing the entertainment industries.
Despite extensive advertising campaigns and some high profile lawsuits in the US, young Australians continue to believe that it is acceptable to download music, movies and TV shows unlawfully rather than pay for them or wait for them to be released or broadcast in Australia. Indeed, I am suprised that ARIA has found that only one in three under 24-year-olds downloaded music illegally. Based upon my discussions with students (and law students at that, including students who are stuyding copyright law), I would have thought that figure would be much higher. It seems to me that the entertainment industries are facing a losing battle and that they need to introduce new business models that embrace the reality that the future of entertainment is online. iTunes, YouTube and Hulu are all steps in the right direction, except for one fatal flaw - they continue to insist on imposing national boundaries on the internet. Not only are the various geo-identification techniques they use to impose these artificial national boundaries on the internet flawed, they fail to apreciate that the future of entertainment is not only online, it is also international. The entertainment industries are not only losing this battle, they are losing the war - they need to move forward and embrace the future of digital entertainment.