Tackling College Piracy: The P2P Quiz
Written by Ben Jones on August 11, 2008Under the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, colleges and universities that get federal funding have to come up with ways to deal with “Campus-based Digital Theft Prevention”. The bill doesn’t give specific methods, and universities can come up with their own methods, as Missouri S&T has done with their P2P quiz.
The subject of universities and (illicit) filesharing has been slowly gaining prominence over the past year, and more now than ever, with the passage of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008. We have taken a look into the different ways universities around the US are dealing with the subject. In part one, Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Initially a mining school, the university, known until the start of the year as University of Missouri,Rolla, is not exactly the largest around. Even though the university has just over 6,000 students, they have not been ignored in the scattergun campaign that is Internet-copyright-enforcement by organizations such as the RIAA.
In a recent press release, however, the university claims to have reduced its influx of notices, and credits it to a new system. This groundbreaking system is a multiple choice test, that students have to get completely correct each time, before being allowed access to filesharing applications. Once the test is ‘aced’ the student is granted 6 hours of p2p access. A student can use no more than 8 six-hour periods (48 hours total) a month.
In theory, this could work, but as more things move to a p2p based distribution model, having the ability to access things only on a timed basis is somewhat shortsighted. The content industries are pushing for this kind of restriction, and might see this as a promising development, but have been quiet on Missouri S&T’s program.
Also, the restriction on what can be seen as ‘mainstream p2p’ could lead to an increase in p2p that is harder to monitor and notice, as students will most likely encrypt their traffic or attempt to access content in ways not restricted. Sites that host files like rapidshare wouldn’t be affected by the time restrictions, and internal dc++ hubs, to share what is transferred in during the 6-hour windows would spring up.
It is also unclear which protocols are counted as p2p for these purposes. Newsgroups, as well as showing a resurgence in popularity for file sharing, are also a valuable tool for information exchange in general (and one sometimes embraced by major content producers. J. Michael Straczynski has been posting regularly to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, and Terry Pratchett is a regular on alt.fan.pratchett). However, it’s one potential way to prevent WoW addiction in students.
Requests to the university’s system security analyst, Karl Lutzen, were not answered at the time of publication.
Update 12-08-08:
Karl Lutzen did get in touch with us. He explained how the system worked “All p2p protocols known by the technical controls, plus behavioral matches are all blocked by default. This is the default setting that everyone has and the only way to enable the protocols is to go through the application and pass the quiz.”
He also explained how the system stops computers that are set up to use popular p2p networks on a home connection, suddenly throwing out lots of data when connected to the faster university connection, and acting as a magnet for notices. Also, internal P2P networks seem not to be prohibited. When asked about WoW updates, as an example, he told TorrentFreak “In the case of WoW, there is an automatic HTML fallback, but as players within our network start downloading updates, they end up sharing the updates via P2P locally just fine.”
Previously: Prototype Anti-Piracy Tool Revealed and Taken Offline
Next: Millions Download Olympics Opening Ceremony via BitTorrent
42 Responses
I say that this is an excellent opportunity for people to immediately get out there and start a protest movement. People of this university, and everybody else in general need to get on the streets with pickets.
Why don’t people get out there with pickets and protest? As long as there are no protests, nobody would notice the other side. People will always assume that everybody accepts this as long as people don’t protest. If you don’t protest, you are essentially accepting it.
first!
lol what the quiz say do you use bitlord to get most of your music? lol what a joke
I’m honestly supprised if this system could at all work. Surely someone with a I background on the campus can just create small VPNs that encrypt the line to somewhere else for any P2P traffic.
Takes ordinary hardware and about 5 minutes setting up openvpn.
IT* background
I have indeed contacted K’Tetch. It seems like they don’t care much about it. What have they been doing? Not much - they care more about “privacy” or “government accountability.” I am certainly not satisfied with them.
And what’s so special about the Pirate Party? They are not quite notable, and even though they have been mentioned several times by newspapers, they pretty much have no members. I see nothing anywhere urging people to join the pirate party, nor is the Pirate Party urging simple protests.
And yes, I have planned a one-person protest (i. e. I protest by myself).
I have indeed planned a one-person protest in which I will protest by myself. It would be nice, though, if other people would support this.
@6-It doesnt matter if its going to work or not. S&T is just going through the motions like everybody else to avoid more attention.
You should be more concerned with the symbolic importance of this action. It is a symbolic disapproval of “piracy.” This isn’t something to be dismissed as inconsequential - indeed, the fact that the college has made an overt disapproval is an important fact by itself.
Damn! It feels good to be FIRST… :p
Silly system, once someone does access a P2P network they can then share it on their local DC hubs, and students being friends can do each other favors when they dont have time in their 6hr windows..
eg:
Hey, forgot to DL X, can you dl it for me and put it on the hub…? next time you need something will do the same for you…
When will they learn? Brute force is not the answer, new silly laws are not the answer, and constantly fighting for each inch of the proverbial ground is not the answer… adapt,
adapt you useless _dinosaur_ motherfu…
And PLEASE stop with all the talk of organizing ourselves to rally etc… talk is cheap, organize something *then* invite/tell us so we can move our fat butts away from our computers to rally etc but for the love of god… stop talking the same thing over and over and over and..
Cheers!
CJ
http://www.ezee.se
“However, it’s one potential way to prevent WoW addiction in students.”
ROFL. Most valuable thing to come out of the RIAA/MPAA/etc in a decade.
Except for Britney Spears’ unintentional amusement value, perhaps.
Hello people of TF.
I am looking to start some kind of protest group to protest all the latest happenings related to copyright. However, I have no idea on how to proceed. Do you have any tips on starting a political group?
Why do Company’s feel the need to babysit other peoples children?
Do they pay our bills?
Do they wash our clothes?
Do they cook the food?
Then they have no right to control other peoples gaming habits, i swear japan is the only country where they completely ignore addiction problems, and it wonderfully solves it’s self with time.
Couldn’t you just use Imageshack’s service (they DL the torrent, you DL the finished file) to get past this? it’d show up as a standard http download, wouldn’t it?
@9:
Absolutely true. This is simply a symbolic act that the University disapproves piracy.
It’s a cheap way of citing their disapproval for illegal downloading.
@1:
Western societies have become complacent. If each society had to answer the clarion call to action, a mass protest would garner the attention of those in the political sphere.
There are tons of easy ways to get around this system. For example, I’d leave a server at home and SSH all of my traffic through it.
Even if the cap applied to all traffic, one could still download using the home server (running Azureus + WebUI) and SCP to the computer at school. You’d have 1/2 the torrent traffic, since your uploads won’t appear on the school’s network.
nice
Way around this:
have a laptop at college
and at home a pc/server
use the site
secure.logmein.com
log on to home pc
download torrents via home pc
return home to pickup the music.
if you live far away from college burn to a data dvd and have a parent/sibling mail you the dvd
it’s like a dollar something mailed via USPS.
They reduced the influx of notices by reducing the time students can use p2p. So what.
I bet they’d see even more reductions if they restricted all Internet activity to eight six-hour windows. Imagine the justification: nearly everything you do with HTTP involves making a copy of something regulated by copyright, and besides, you’re not supposed to cite Wikipedia in papers anyway. Because you know that’s all they use it for. In fact, they’d even have to take a quiz about proper research methods each time they check their email. I bet their students would love that. Always assume the worst and restrict accordingly!
/sarcasm
i was there for a bit earlier this summer. program didnt work at all.
first off, imageshack’s service easily circumvents the scheme, but that is to be expected.
there was also no requirement to complete the quiz if BT traffic was encrypted. in fact, procedures there were rather obfuscated and it was very hard to determine what was going on.
i did not feel comfortable at S&T at all — they seemed to be trying to look over my shoulder the whole time, but didnt really know how to act effectively…
@ 18 - XeroAqua
wayyy to slow, just get to routers capable of DD-WRT firmware, set them up using a OpenVPN bridged connection, it’ll join both your uni/home network. Everything you need is in there Wiki pages aswell.
Then just use some RDP on Windows and access all the stuff you download, transfer during lessons and your sorted.
“In a month, a student can use no more than 8 six-hour periods (48 hours total) a month.”
OMG !! Just 48 hrs in a month , gosh i wont be able to survive in such a hostile enviroment.
Its “J. Michael Straczynski” not “Michael Straczynski”
“However, it’s one potential way to prevent WoW addiction in students.”
…Nice bit of random info that is irrelevant and/or unexplained as to it’s meaning to the article…
Ben Jones: IN ADDITION, I know not why you are as hostile as you are against me, for I am not berating everyone else for failing to act, and assuming the higher ground - rather, I am asking everybody to act together, as a group. I am not seeking to be someone superior to others, or to be the leader of a group - rather, I am merely seeking to incite others to action, for what is necessary, is not for individuals to act alone, but rather as a group working together.
“And PLEASE stop with all the talk of organizing ourselves to rally etc… talk is cheap, organize something *then* invite/tell us so we can move our fat butts away from our computers to rally etc but for the love of god… stop talking the same thing over and over and over and..”
In my ansewr to this, I am saying that I have no wish to do this alone. Everything from organizing to rallying others, is something that has to be done by a group - it is not something to be done alone. What I am seeking is not to organize it alone, but rather to get others to get in the act of collective organizatin. It is in the spirit of COLLECTIVE ACTION, not an action with a central leader or anything like that.
And besides, hearing “go, action!” over and over again is at least better than hearing “copyright sucks, boo copyright” over and over again.
I also think that anything done alone by a central leader is detrimental to the cause of freedom and democracy of culture and creativity. I see no reason why anyone should go plan anything alone. What should be done instead is that people plan it publicly on public places together.
Let me explain further:
The fact is that political movements don’t start because a person organized it, and somehow everybody is able to join in and be lead like sheep. No, it doesn’t work like that. In order for people to be organized, the people must already be part of it - everybody needs to be involved in the organization process, for the people must be part of the effort as well. The people must be involved since the start of the mere idea of action, and must also be involved in the process of organization. For example, you can’t just organize a protest and expect everybody to join in; rather, people must have already joined in before you can protest.
Last Word: You people seem to think that a political movement first has to be organized, and then the people join in flocks. But no, it’s the reverse: in actuality, people join the movement, and THEN it gets organized. I mean, in order for a political movement to exist, it first has to have its supporters. I mean, it doesn’t make sense to organize anything when you don’t have any supporters, because then you won’t have anything to organize. Organization is not something you plan for people to join in; rather it is a designation of actions to people who are already part of it. Because really, the people must join in first, BEFORE they take any action. It’s just common sense.
You guys are idiots.. (The ones talking about a protest). Have you forgotten that uh.. we all dont just live in the same area? And where exactly would this ‘protest’ be. Chances are anyone posting here is hundreds of miles apart.. and as much as I would join a protest, im not driving that far just to be ignored.
Seriously.. stfu about a protest. Waving pieces of wood around doesnt do anything. And just as we are displaced on the internet.. so are they in RL. We all cant travel to one place and find the uber RIAA LORD and shove pickets up his ass.
STFU.
OH i didn’t know about PIRACY , NOW THAT I DO ….SOUNDS GOOD TO ME SIGN ME UP.
I go to MST and it’s still really easy to get anything you want. The entire student body is as nerdy and dorky as it gets. Someone on campus has what you want. We can browse all the computers sharing out files in which ever dorm building you’re in. For a few years a sharing tool called Seek 42 (http://www.seek42.net) was UMR/MST’s primary sharing method. It’s been shut down and the seniors of the program have moved on or graduated. Now it’s run by a bunch of newbs (who think they’re the shit) who are Karl’s bitches and adhere to all of his commands.
Since Seek42 no longer publicly promotes file sharing (privately it’s a whole different story) file sharing has slowed down a bit. However off campus and other alternatives are popping up. And as already posted Rapidshare has become much more popular especially for people who have multiple computers and/or friends which allows a full movie (6+ RS parts) to be grabbed quickly. Not many people are premium members.
As posted on the seek forums: “The name and the degree still aren’t very well known outside of Missouri, and that’s the difference”
@ 2
You n00b. You were not first at all.
In actuality, I mean to start protesting in separate locations. What is very important is not just for one person to act, but for everybody to act at the same time, perhaps find people near them, and plan separate things for separate locations.
Thought some of the p2p quiz might have been with this story.
Can we see some of it please?
The quiz is bullshit and easy to get past, plus you can retake it until you get it right.
Also the new “piracy detection” generates too many false positives. Playing x-box or watching youtube videos are often red-flagged and your internet is throttled to dial-up speeds. Furthermore, this system has caused the entire campus to suffer from extremely high latencies, constant connection drops, and more. It really feels like Karl just decided to route/filter all internet traffic through a server somewhere in China.
I’m glad I’m not forced to use campus internet. The whole process of “stopping piracy” is basically **lets hang a lead ball around the neck of anyone who wants to use the internet. using the internet to pirate music will be so obnoxious there will be no desire to pirate** Seriously how do companies think this helps them. I’d simply love to buy some new CDs from amazon when I’m on campus, but the RIAA seems to think my SSL connection to protect my credit card hurts their bottom line (because all internet traffic is piracy right? thats why we need a bigger government to protect us from pirates)
So you’re going to college, huh? Wow! Think of the growing and learning you’ll do. No more parents and their irrational fears and pointless questions. Yup, the world is your oyster…
Wait a sec, who wants to see my homework? The RIAA? Why would they want to see it?
re: Isaac, who said
“”However, it’s one potential way to prevent WoW addiction in students.”
…Nice bit of random info that is irrelevant and/or unexplained as to it’s meaning to the article…”
WoW (World of Warcraft) = game.
WoW distributes updates via P2P.
The college is restricting P2P usage.
Since updates are distributed weekly at most, in actuality WoW addicts could still get their fixes.
But it’s funny anyway.
PS: Do the college’s printers have to take the quiz too? After all, if the printers “get caught” three times they should have their internet access permanently revoked.
The P2P blocks and bandwidth throttling enforced at MS&T are taking the University back to the stone age.
FCC Ruling on Comcast P2P throttling: http://www.circleid.com/posts/fcc_reprimands_comcast_internet_throttling/
It’s a little strange that people seem to concentrate more on the filesharing of MST than the huge amount of drinking going on, the suicides, and constant bomb/antrax/taking over the nuclear reactor threats.
Because pirating is so much more evil than setting a garbage chute on fire.
Btw, Rapidshare has changed its protocols. No more limit on the amount you download, just the speed, which is capped at 500Kbit/s.
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