Stanford University Embraces BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on October 18, 2008While some universities restrict the use of BitTorrent clients, others embrace the popular flilesharing protocol and use it to spread knowledge. Stanford University is one of the few to realize that BitTorrent does not equal piracy. They use BitTorrent to give away some of their engineering courses, with some success.
Always wanted to learn more about Robotics, Linear Dynamical Systems or Programming Paradigms? Now you can, for free, thanks to Stanford Engineering’s online courses.
The University not only gives away videos of lectures, but also syllabi, handouts, homework and exams. In addition to offering torrents, the courses are also available on YouTube, via iTunes and Vyew. With the project Stanford aims to spread knowledge on technology worldwide.
Thus far, the online courses have been a great success. Over 200,000 people from all over the world have visited the site already. Most foreign visitors come from Canada, according to a recent news release, followed by Brazil, China, Italy and the UK.
For now, only the 10 most popular computer science and electrical engineering courses are published online, but additional courses will be added later. All course materials are published under a Creative Commons license, which allows others to adapt, remix and share them as long as it is for noncommercial use, and if they link back to the university.
As P2P-blog points out, there is one downside to the torrents Stanford is offering. They do not use regular trackers, but only Vuze’s DHT tracker. This means that people who use BitTorrent clients that do not support DHT, such as Transmission, BitLord and BitTornado, are not able to download the files. Of course, uTorrent and Azureus users will have no problems.
While Stanford recognizes the benefits of BitTorrent, it is also cracking down on students who use it to download copyrighted material. Students who get caught for the first time have to pay a $100 fine, the second offense costs $500, and those who get caught three times will have to pay $1000 to regain access to the university network.
Previously: New Zealand First to Adopt 3-Strikes Law for Pirates
Next: Record Label ‘Infringes’ Own Copyright, Site Pulled
32 Responses
first
Heck! This is getting so common I think the day is near when this wont be news anymore!
Am waiting for that day because I know a lot of execs are going to be rolling in the graves…and beds.
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Awesome! Free educational toolzzz
BitTorrent is mostly for pedophiles and criminals.
It would be better if they banned BitTorrent from the Internet.
Duh, my name’s moot and I’m a boring troll.
there fines are ridiculous..
This is the way to go!
EH MOOT ….FUCK YOU ASSHOLE …EAT CHEAT ……
fuck off moot!!!
u piece of shit!!
moot sucks
Hey guys, give moot a break. He knows his stuff…… From first hand knowledge LOL.
Seen the odd bit of porn on torrents, but child porn is never found, why is this ? any public tracker will be open for all to see, who want’s their ip address linked to child porn ?
Maybe moot is writing from personal preference and experience ?
@12 i downloaded over 15 gigabytes of CP yesterday from piratebay
stanford’s policy has always been to release and make available all its course informstion and learning and knowledge for free for everyone everywhere
stanford is the leader in freedom of access, information and opportunity
unfortunately they design a system based on evil dht which is known to be the tool of the anti-p2p. trackerless connections are a way to monitor your activity
maybe stanford is being idealistic, maybe they are right, whatever, when institutions join bittorrent then everything becomes more sunshine
ernesto i was gonna comment this week on stanford’s open library policy in the article about text books but it was too big to post. you did it succinctly dude, congratz and thanks
http://www.h33t.com where access, information and opportunity are real
so i herd u liek mudkipz
Its nice to see a technology appreciated for what it is.
Anthony Pittarelli
i was like this is good till i saw the part about how there pirate-hunters. its funny pirate-hunters on the internet are just as annoying as the pirate-hunters in sid meiers pirates.
I always did like Stanford! Very open minded folk there!
Jiff
http://www.online-privacy.se.tc
“BitTorrent is mostly for pedophiles and criminals.”
True, so true.
I have personally downloaded countless pedophiles and criminals using bt.
I just can´t help myself…
This is a really good news!
Bye!
Great news, but was actually news over a month ago.
moot wants to be a little girl.
Also, those fines are rediculous, but I guess it doesn’t matter to the students, because only rich people can afford to go there anyway…
This thread has been invaded by /b/tards.
oh noeZ, rules 1 and 2 :( wait.. only for raids, swwy! :p
@27 You obviously haven’t read the article, get back to /b/
@13 : moot – BS you downloaded 15Gb from The Pirate Bay in one day…
… there is no way that crappy public tracker is that fast.
It’s a slow pile of crap that enthusiastic 12 year olds and anyone else that clueless about how to get files use. If they think it’s “great”, “FTW” and “the best EVAR!” it shows how truly clueless they are about how to get quality releases fast.
So what if they’re only providing it on their own tracker? How hard would it be to re-up it on another public or private tracker for everyone?
Hope bit torrent is the downloading software.I had used bit torrent two weeks back.The downloading speed by using bit torrent was poor.It takes only quater of the total BW(Band Width)availabe which is a time consuming for most of the low speed internet users.While the other download mangers will take total avaible BW at the time of downloading.This may be not good for the university students.
Dumb debate above in the form of comments, a torrent is much like a gun, used well, it’s an excellent tool, but like a gun, it can also be used illicitly. You want to ban torrents… why not ban the internet too since it contains so much nudity, while you are at it, lets ban religion too since it’s the primary source of all warfare and human suffering.
@29
I did read the whole article, all the way down to the last paragraph. I guess you didn’t…
Great show 5/5
They just want extra money to go on vacation,not help sales
I think they must close BitTorrent from the Internet…
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