As the entertainment industry increasingly takes aim at college students for illegal downloading, Stanford University administrators continue to take steps of their own to crack down on illegal file-sharing on campus, reports the Stanford Daily. The university began issuing fines of $100, $500, and $1,000 for the first, second, and third respective violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in September 2007, and it has since implemented further measures to deter students from illegally downloading. In July, Stanford’s Information Security Office (ISO) announced a new automated system for students to respond to DMCA complaints, including a quiz and subsequent automatic re-routing to an ISO web page if students do not respond to the complaint in a timely manner. "We’ve made some changes aside from implementing a disconnection fee to make it more painful for students in an effort to prevent them from illegally downloading," said Associate Information Security Officer Paul Keser. "We got all these DMCA complaints, and people who have gotten notices from us have noticed that they’re a lot more automated. Students have to pass a quiz before they’re allowed back on the network. Hopefully, it educates them about a thing or two and has more of an impact."
Stanford punishes digital pirates
By eSchool News
October 29th, 2009
