Missouri University of Science and Technology, in Rolla, enables P2P access for 6 hours on a user?s on-campus registered PC if they get a perfect score on a copyright infringement quiz.

Inside Higher Ed is reporting what has to be the most unconventional "carrot and stick" approach to illegal file-sharing on a college campus that I have ever heard of. Rather than ban the use of P2P and file-sharing programs outright and terminate the internet accounts of students who violate the policy, as is the standard for most colleges and universities around the country, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, in Rolla, instead actually enables P2P access for students who can ace an online quiz on copyright infringement.

The way the system works is that if a student can get a perfect score on an online quiz on copyright infringement then P2P access will be enabled on their registered on-campus PC for 6 hours. It must be taken each time, for a maximum of 8 per month. Questions include asking students what kinds of works are protected by copyright and the difference between copying a CD and downloading music.

It uses traffic shaping technology to tie P2P and file-sharing program access to the online quiz.

?The idea is that we had a policy where we permitted peer-to-peer protocols for educational and research use,? said Karl F. Lutzen, a systems security analyst at the university, and as long as it was for legitimate reasons, ?we didn?t have a problem with people using it.... This solution, more or less, through educational and technical controls, enforces that policy.?

And you know what? It seems to be working, for this year the school received only 8 DMCA notices from the RIAA, down an astonishing 96% from some 200 that it received last year.

?Based on the amount of grumbling it?s actually working pretty well,? Lutzen said.

However, it may be that the university's strict punishment for copyright infringement violations has more to do with the downturn in DMCA notices. For for the first offense means 14 days of revoked internet network access and 28 days, plus community service, for the second, and so on. For a college student Internet access is absolutely critical and so many are surely unwilling to risk crucial research capability for a download of the latest John Mayer album.

Either way it's a novel approach and it least it offers students some sort of P2P usage.
Lease Reviewed by Lease on . [19/5/08]College Allows File-Sharing for Students Who Ace Copyright Law Test Missouri University of Science and Technology, in Rolla, enables P2P access for 6 hours on a user?s on-campus registered PC if they get a perfect score on a copyright infringement quiz. Inside Higher Ed is reporting what has to be the most unconventional "carrot and stick" approach to illegal file-sharing on a college campus that I have ever heard of. Rather than ban the use of P2P and file-sharing programs outright and terminate the internet accounts of students who violate the policy, as Rating: 5