Chris McAuliffe, a sophomore at Brown, was busy downloading "Sugar Magnolia" by the Grateful Dead during a recent Sunday afternoon. "I download music files every day, almost," McAuliffe says. Although he considers himself an extreme case, the volume of file-sharing by students has prompted some universities around the country to clamp down on the practice.

Both the University of Chicago and the State University of New York at Buffalo have limited the amount of file-sharing that can take place on their computer systems. Chicago requires students to dismantle all popular file-sharing programs as part of its acceptable usage policy, while Buffalo has limited large bandwidths, meaning that downloading music takes days instead of minutes. These schools oppose rampant file sharing because it slows their computer systems and downloading, depending on whom you listen to, may violate copyright laws.

Local universities have yet to directly outlaw music sharing programs like Kazaa. John Barry, the director of networking and telecommunications services at URI, has no plans to prohibit music downloads as long as they don't violate copyright laws. "Our policies are based on our legal council's best interest and according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," says Barry. "There are ways to [prohibit download programs], but we're not going to do it. Downloading music files takes up a certain bandwidth, and we'll give a higher priority to things like e-mail. But we won't censor what students download. We're not in that business."

An administration source at RISD says, "What is hard for us to determine is if what they [the students] download is copyright infringement. I can tell you that the download of audio files is available to all students enrolled."

How widespread is file sharing among college students in Rhode Island? According to McAuliffe, it is nearly universal. "Any kid who has a computer downloads music," he says. "If they buy music, they'll download music."

According to Brown's current guidelines for appropriate computing behavior, the download of sound files is in the clear . . . for now. The guidelines state that "the computing environment is continually evolving . . . users are responsible for staying informed about changes in the computing environment [and] are expected to adapt to changes."

As long as it's legal, McAuliffe will continue to download songs like a madman. "I've even used Kazaa for academic reasons," he insists. "I downloaded stuff for my Beethoven class just the other day." Beethoven, that is, followed by Led Zeppelin.

Issue Date: November 29 - December 5, 2002