Letter: Alternative to present file sharing policy proposed

You've probably received Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta and Chief Information Officer Tracy Futhey's e-mail instructing everyone at Duke to cease using peer-to-peer programs like KaZaA for file sharing. They cite two problems: one, overuse of bandwidth and two, illegal activity. I support calls for copyright enforcement but note that their decree aims to protect the University and its administrators and not to address student needs.

Their e-mail angered me because of its condescending tone and misleading fact. Did the writers of this letter believe they actually were doing students a favor by informing about the "safest action" for personal protection? Come on. Furthermore, concerns about bandwidth consumption are illogical. There has been exactly one case this year where the network failed and was blamed on a user downloading too much--and I doubt, based upon my understanding of technology, that this explanation is accurate. Furthermore, the network seems to be more than adequately fast.

It's easy to guess the outcome of the Moneta/Futhey decree. Few students will stop using KaZaA, and then perhaps in a few months, someone will be caught and an example will be made. Certainly, nobody, including Moneta and Futhey, would want to see this outcome.

So, I propose an alternative that should be satisfactory to students and administrators alike. The library system already pays for an abundance of information retrieval systems and does so more cheaply per capita than if anyone purchased such services individually. And since we can classify music and movies as information, let Moneta and Futhey establish a contract with a legal music and movie downloading site--there are many good ones--using the library system budget. This way, we can still harness the power of the Internet for entertainment and information while simultaneously obeying the law.