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Opinion
P2P Redux: New Twists and Turns
6/13/2008
a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution."Federal Wiretapping Laws
If the specter of having one of the underpinnings of their lawsuits invalidated isn't enough of a blow to RIAA, it has been suggested that deep packet inspection may violate federal wiretapping laws.
At the May Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2008 conference Paul Ohm argued that ISPs that monitor their networks for excessive bandwidth use or copyright infringement might be violating federal wiretapping laws and be subject to felony prosecution. Ohm is an associate professor Law at the University of Colorado, where he specializes in the emerging field of computer crime law, as well as criminal procedure, intellectual property, and information privacy.
Ohm argued that Comcast, AT&T, and Charter Communications may place themselves in criminal and civil jeopardy if they implement packet inspection schemes to throttle bandwidth, police for copyright violations, and serve targeted ads. Despite all the wrangling over these issues, Ohm said he thinks the legal issues are simpler: Packet inspection schemes all seem to violate the federal Wiretap Act of 1968 and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The acts prohibit the intentional interception, use, or disclosure of wire and electronic communications except for limited exceptions. What's more, Ohm said he thinks network system administrators and their bosses could be in trouble for installing monitoring devices. In other words, if campuses do what the RIAA wants them to do, they may be in violation of the law!
Another panelist at the conference, Michael McKeehan, Director of Internet and Technology Policy at Verizon, shared Ohm's concerns. "As far as copyright filtering at the net level goes, Verizon is not doing it.... We see significant legal and policy issues that need study." His concerns included monitoring customers, liability if the filtering misses something, the possibility of false positives, and the possibility that filters will lead to an encryption war to hide packets from filters.
RIAA Redux
I'm not a lawyer, but it sure seems like higher education is in a stronger position now than it was last February when I penned my column P2P File Sharing on Campus: The Battle Isn't Over. It's ironic is that the higher education community, more than perhaps any other sector, has moved aggressively to educate its users about the importance of respecting intellectual property rights.
Doug Gale is president of Information Technology Associates, LLC (www.it associates.org) an IT consultancy specializing in higher education. He has more than 30 years of experience in higher education as a faculty member, CIO, and research administrator.
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