An open forum was held on Tuesday for students to discuss the shutdown of the Phynd service. The forum was hosted by Khaoula Benghanem, Class of 2005 Senator, and was attended by approximately 20 students but no administrators.
On November 13th, Dean of Students Mark Smith contacted Phynd administrator Bryant Eadon after the Recording Industry Association of America notified Smith that if RPI did not take action against Phynd, it would pursue legal action against the service. Eadon disabled Phynd once contacted, and replaced it with an online message board.
Tuesday’s forum was held to clear up any misunderstandings about the shutdown and to gather possible solutions from students. All the students who attended the forum supported Phynd, but their solutions to the problems facing it ranged in nature.
Although many attendees commented that Phynd was targeted because it was “an easy scapegoat,” they questioned why individual copyright offenders were not. “Copyright infringement starts with the individual and must end there,” one undergraduate stated.
Others questioned the legality of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act itself. The DMCA is the law that the RIAA is using to sue various filesharers and services around the country. Support for this law is not universal, and one student at the meeting went so far as to suggest that “The real issue is people should break the law and RPI should support it.”
As a possible solution to the Phynd problem, forum participants suggested that the creation of a search engine exclusively for non-copyrighted files was an obvious solution; however, those with technical knowledge claimed it was impossible. They said that even if a person hand-approved every file available for download, such a system would be
unworkable.
A strict enforcement of Rensselaer’s Policy on Electronic Citizenship was also proposed. Currently the policy prohibits “using, accessing, copying, printing, and storing copyrighted” material on the RPI network. If this rule were actively enforced, the true violators would be punished, some forum participants claimed.
The PEC states “persons in violation of this policy are subject to the full range of sanctions, including, but not limited to, the loss of computer or network access privileges, disciplinary action, dismissal from the Institute, and legal action.” But because RPI personnel do not actively search out copyrighted material shared on their network, and only respond to inquiries, it seems that these punishments are rarely handed out.
The administration does not have a definitive policy on the issue, and questions on its stance are usually answered with descriptions of the vagueries in the existing law. No representatives of the administration were present at the meeting to alleviate any of the students’ concerns, but Benghanem ended the forum by saying that questions posed during the forum would be passed on to the administration.
