Want to Download? Take the Quiz
[Quote:]
For all the high-tech tactics colleges have employed to slow or block students’ illegal file sharing activity, few have actually turned to methods used in the classroom to get the message across. A university in Missouri thinks it’s found the right solution, combining an age-old teacher’s tool with a dash of discipline.
Last academic year, Missouri University of Science and Technology, in Rolla, received some 200 Digital Millennium Copyright Act “takedown” notices from the recording industry, notifying the institution that users of its network had made copyrighted works available for download. This academic year — at a time when colleges across the country have been experiencing sudden spikes in copyright complaints — the university received eight. Karl F. Lutzen, a systems security analyst at the university, chalks it up to Missouri S&T’s unusual method of regulating students’ network usage: In order to download (or upload) files on any peer-to-peer network whatsoever, all on-campus users have to pass an online quiz on copyright infringement.
But not just once. Passing the test — with a perfect score — enables peer-to-peer access for six hours on the user’s on-campus registered machines, presumably enough time to download that (legal) song, TV show or e-book. The next time, the student, staff or faculty member has to go to the intranet Web page and take the randomized test again
Test software: Hello Mr. Manson, 1) Is murder legal?
Charles Manson: no
Test software: 2) Is murder bad?
Charles Manson: yes
Test software: 3) Would you feel bad if you murdered someone?
Charles Manson: yes
Test software: 4) Do you presently feel like murdering?
Charles Manson: no
Test software: 5) murder, Murder, MURDER!!!
Charles Manson: no, No, NO!!!
Test software: Congratulations, you have scored 100%. You now have 6 hours of access to the cutlery drawer.
On a side note, take a look at the website the university created, which states:
If you have downloaded copyright-protected files without paying for them then you have violated an author’s property rights.
which is of course utter and total bullshit. Here, let me list a few sites where you can download copyright-protected files without paying for them, and without violation the author’s rights:
http://www.debian.org
http://www.gentoo.org
http://mandriva.com
http://www.redhat.com
http://www.slackware.com
http://www.suse.com
http://www.freebsd.org
http://www.netbsd.org
http://www.openbsd.org
http://www.gnu.org
http://www.apache.org
More are listed here, but I think I’ve already listed at least half of all the software used on internet servers today.
If your university pulls crap like this, you’re not getting your money’s worth of education, I suggest you go find another place to learn.
I would change the quiz.
Hi, Jason! Before you get acces to the download service, here is a quick quiz for you:
2) WHich one of the following answers is true:
3 questions of one of his classes. History, Math, Mechanics, Chemistry, whatever.
Now it would be just as annoying, but at least it would be useful
Am I evil?
That would mean students actually had to learn something - I’m sure they’d immediately sue the university for discrimination!
Or they would learn. Motivation is a good thing.
I am not sure the university HAVE TO provide p2p access to a student.
But would be fun to see their face, when the question about last week’s class - which they conveniently skipped - pops up before download