The embattled music industry on June 25 disclosed aggressive plans for an unprecedented escalation in its fight against internet piracy, threatening to sue hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online. The annoucement gives schools and colleges yet another reason to warn students (and others) not to share copyright-protected materials over their networks.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), citing substantial sales declines, said it would begin on June 26 to search internet file-sharing networks to identify users who offer “substantial” collections of MP3 music files for downloading. It expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within eight to 10 weeks.

Executives for the RIAA, the Washington-based lobbying group that represents major labels, would not say how many songs on a user’s computer would qualify for a lawsuit. The new campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring internet service providers to identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files.

The RIAA’s president, Carey Sherman, said tens of millions of web surfers who use popular file-sharing software after June 26 will expose themselves to “the real risk of having to face the music.”

“It’s stealing. It’s both wrong and illegal,” Sherman said. Alluding to the court decisions, Sherman said internet users who believe they can hide behind an alias online are mistaken. “You are not anonymous,” Sherman said. “We’re going to begin taking names.”

In April, the RIAA sued four college students who allegedly offered more than 1 million recordings online, demanding damages of $150,000 per song. The students agreed to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,500 each and not illegally distribute copyrighted music. The new campaign apparently expands on this earlier effort.

Critics accused the RIAA of resorting to heavy-handed tactics likely to alienate millions of internet file-sharers.

“This latest effort really indicates the recording industry has lost touch with reality completely,” said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Does anyone think more lawsuits are going to be the answer? Today they have declared war on the American consumer.”

Sherman disputed that charge. He said consumers are gradually turning to legitimate web sites, such as Apple Computer’s new iTunes Music Store (see “New online music store could tone down digital piracy,” http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4432), to buy music legally. As a result, he predicted they will not object to the industry’s latest efforts against pirates.

“You have to look at exactly who are your customers,” he said. “You could say the same thing about shoplifters; are you worried about alienating them? All sorts of industries and retailers have come to the conclusion that they need to be able to protect their rights. We have come to the same conclusion.”

Mike Godwin of Public Knowledge, a consumer group that has challenged broad crackdowns on internet file-sharing networks, said the June 25 announcement was appropriate because it targeted users illegally sharing copyrighted files.

“I’m sure it’s going to freak them out,” Godwin said. “The free ride is over.” He added: “I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some people engaged in file-trading decide to resist and try to find ways to thwart the litigation strategy.”

The RIAA said its lawyers will file lawsuits initially against people with the largest collections of music files they can find online. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person’s computer, but Sherman said the RIAA will be open to settlement proposals from defendants.

“We have no hard and fast rule on how many files you have to be distributing … to come within our radar screen,” Sherman said. “We will go after the worst offenders first.”

The RIAA said it expected to file “at least several hundred lawsuits” within eight to 10 weeks but will continue to file lawsuits afterward on a regular basis.

The group’s announcement is just the latest salvo in the effort to protect copyrights in the digital age. Earlier in June, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sparked a flurry of criticism when he suggested exploring technology that would remotely destroy computers used for illegal file-sharing.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, himself a published song writer, surprised participants in a Senate hearing on copyright issues with his remarks. He said damaging someone’s computer “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights” and suggested the technology could twice warn users of their illegal activity, “then destroy their computer.”

Some legal experts suggested Hatch’s provocative remarks were more likely intended to compel technology and music executives to work faster toward ways to protect copyrights online than to signal forthcoming legislation.

“It’s just the frustration of those who are looking at enforcing laws that are proving very hard to enforce,” said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former Justice Department cybercrimes prosecutor.

Links:

Recording Industry Association of America
http://www.riaa.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org

Senate Judiciary Committee
http://judiciary.senate.gov

K-12 schools nationwide that receive donated or refurbished computers running the Windows operating system (OS) now can take advantage of a little-known initiative from Microsoft Corp. that lets administrators ensure the machines they’ve received are properly licensed.

The free, online program is the latest attempt by Microsoft to get back within the good graces of its education customers, many of whom had criticized the software giant for taking too tough a stance on its software licensing policy. (See “Lament: Microsoft licensing stance hurts poor schools,” http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4012.)

Dubbed the Fresh Start for Donated Computers program, the initiative enables K-12 schools that receive second-hand machines without the proper paperwork and/or the original Windows OS to secure software licenses and Windows installation CDs at no cost.

Microsoft estimates more than 2 million donated PCs go unused in schools nationwide because they either have been stripped of their operating systems or were accepted without the proper documentation. “It’s kind of a tragedy to see all of [these computers] piled up and not being used,” said Sherri Bealkowski, head of Microsoft’s Education Solutions Group.

To take part in the program, school technology leaders must log onto Microsoft’s Fresh Start for Donated Computers web page (see link below) and complete a short online application meant to ensure that the request is being made by a bond fide K-12 school.

Upon reviewing the application, the company sends a letter of approval along with the documentation, as well as one copy of the software on CD-ROM for donated computers that no longer have the original Windows OS loaded.

Schools can choose between versions of Windows 98 and 2000, depending on which system best matches the functionality of the donated computer and their technology environment and standards, the company said.

While the program has been up and running since January, many school technology leaders probably are hearing about it for the first time. That’s because Microsoft wanted to break the program in gently to ensure that the online process addressed educators’ concerns.

“We wanted to figure out a way to do this and make it as easy as we could to provide documentation,” Bealkowski said. “A lot of these machines come with no paperwork, no documentation, nothing on them at all.”

So far, the initiative has met with strong approval from educators, many of whom say working with Microsoft hasn’t always been so easy.

“Microsoft’s licensing programs sometimes are as clear as mud,” said Al Green, technology coordinator for Falcon School District 49 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Fresh Start, however, represents a change of heart by the Redmond, Wash.–based software giant, which—as recently as last summer—urged its school customers not to accept donated or refurbished machines unless they came equipped with the proper software licenses.

Green says that wasn’t a realistic demand. A retired Air Force master sergeant, he used to work in a military program that would strip down computers in preparation for donations. “No organization maintains all of the software that comes with these machines,” he said.

Originally, Microsoft had suggested that schools spend $300 apiece on individual software licenses for all donated computers received without proper licensing or functioning operating systems, Green said.

Given the harsh reality of current budget scenarios—and the increased need for donated machines—the potential for these additional costs forced Green to consider switching to an alternative, open-source Linux platform, a move he did not want to make.

Overall, Green said, he favors employing the Microsoft OS in schools because students and educators tend to be more familiar with its functionality and it generally requires less training. However, he said, if Microsoft had continued to take the hard line with its licensing policy, Linux would have been an option.

“I told [Microsoft], when push comes to shove, I can either put a [Microsoft] solution in the classroom or switch to a Linux operating system,” he said. “Just because I didn’t get a piece of paper doesn’t mean the computer didn’t come with an operating system. That was my argument.”

Apparently, someone at Microsoft was listening.

“People were very sincere in their conversations with me,” Green said of his concerns. “Microsoft having come out with this new program is actually a godsend. It certainly makes my job a lot easier. It helps us do the right thing and stay on the right side of the law.”

That was pretty much the same response voiced by Aaron Munter, executive director of the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium (OETC)—a nonprofit group that includes 450 school districts, colleges, and universities throughout the Northwest.

“Microsoft has been an issue in the past when it comes to donated computers,” he said. But “Fresh Start is a really important program. It’s a win-win situation.”

Munter said donated computers have become especially critical for schools throughout the Northwest, many of which are facing budget shortfalls of historic proportions. Given the current fiscal climate, most schools are “not in a position to refuse the technology,” he said.

According to Munter, at least 50 OETC member school districts already have said they plan to participate in the Fresh Start program, with at least another hundred having expressed some interest.

He added that the online approval process greatly reduces the amount of paperwork school districts and technology consortia can expect to deal with in terms of registering their donated computers with the company.

“Overhead in terms of the paperwork hassle is basically nil,” Munter said. That’s a necessary attribute for large consortia, he said, where a single organization sometimes takes on the task of licensing and certifying machines for several member districts.

Microsoft said it’s offering the Fresh Start program as a “good-faith exercise” to its school customers, which means that if a school registers a computer on the site, the company trusts the original OS for that machine was purchased legally, Bealkowski said. The program lets education customers who have an existing School Agreement with Microsoft automatically add their donated PCs to the terms of that agreement, enabling them to install new and discounted software on refurbished machines at no additional cost, the company said.

Schools only are required to register donated computers that are equipped with Intel Pentium II processors or older models. Pentium III machines and newer models come equipped with a Windows Certificate of Authenticity sticker, known as a COA, which serves as sufficient documentation for a valid Windows OS license, the company said.

Microsoft said it has been signing up as many as 20 new schools a day since the program went into effect earlier this year. Bealkowski said she expects thousands of schools eventually will sign on.

Links:

Microsoft Corp.
http://www.microsoft.com

Fresh Start for Donated Computers program
http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=FreshStart

Oregon Educational Technology Consortium
http://www.oetc.org

The final approval of a new wireless standard called 802.11g earlier this month should open the door for further adoption of wireless networks in schools by providing the power to transmit data up to five times faster than had previously been allowed under earlier standards, industry analysts say.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a technology standard-setting body, approved the upgrade June 12, saying the technology—which increases the speed of current 802.11b networks to 54 Mbps (megabits per second) from 11 Mbps—would give existing wireless infrastructures the power to serve up to five times more users than they do in their current capacity.

In the days following 802.11g’s approval, high-tech companies from Hewlett-Packard to Texas Instruments publicly announced new solutions designed around the high-speed standard, which should pave the way for schools and other organizations to transmit multimedia—including video and MPEG files—across wireless networks, a feat that proved difficult under 802.11b’s limitations.

“The official release of the ‘g’ standard allows us to capitalize on our investment in ‘b’ wireless devices, while gathering the necessary capacity to deliver bandwidth-intensive instructional resources more appropriately,” said Jim Hirsch, associate superintendent for technology services at the Plano Independent School District in Texas.

Another 54 Mbps standard, called 802.11a, already existed but was not compatible with .11b devices because it used a different frequency. The .11a standard also has significantly less range and requires the installation of more access points to be successful.

Thanks to its increased reach and wide availability, .11b has emerged as the de facto standard in wireless technology. New 802.11g components will be backwards-compatible with existing .11b devices, so schools and other organizations will not have to replace the infrastructures they already have in place to take advantage of the upgrade.

Analysts say they expect the approval of 802.11g will spark increased interest among educators, many of whom have been weighing the possibility of wireless for some time.

“802.11b already has people excited, but I think 802.11g will whip them into a frenzy,” said Keith Waryas, research manger for wireless business network services at industry analysis firm IDC, which predicts 23 percent of wireless equipment sold this year and 53 percent sold next year will use .11g technology.

In combination with the hard-wired infrastructures many schools already have in place, Waryas said the evolution of the 802.11 standard should give schools the ability to augment and enhance their networks for better effect.

“Schools probably will find a lot of value adding wireless components to their existing networks,” he added. “Once you increase the bandwidth, you begin to find that you can do things you’ve never been able to do before.”

Although the full potential of the .11g standard won’t be felt immediately, it will become increasingly clear as schools begin to use more robust, bandwidth-hungry applications—such as video and voice over wireless internet protocol (IP), Waryas said.

Still, as schools struggle to make do with sharply limited resources in light of state budget crises, some educators contend it will be a while before wireless networks move any further up on the technology agenda.

“We are not yet investing in wireless technologies because of the cost in an extremely tight budget era,” said Marc Liebman, superintendent of the Marysville Unified School District in California.

Liebman praised the notion of a faster, stronger wireless alternative, but he said many schools lack the money to consider such innovations now. “It would not be politically feasible to lay off employees, reduce student programs, and expend monies for a conversion to wireless technology,” he said. “Unfortunately, I believe that [we are] not alone among school districts.”

However, if schools can scrape together enough funds to begin building wireless networks, IDC’s Waryas suggests a small investment now could translate into huge savings later.

Unlike hard-wired networks, where the costs of laying cable alone can put substantial strain on school budgets, the cost of integrating wireless solutions into existing networks is relatively cheap, Waryas explains. Wireless access points, which even at the high end can be purchased for less than $1,000 apiece, are far less expensive than the costs associated with running cable from room to room.

“It’s an unbelievably cheap way to set up a network,” Waryas said. “You don’t have to lay a lot of fiber to do it. It’s great for schools on extremely limited budgets.”

Security and reliability are among the other issues keeping schools from adopting wireless technologies. Some educators experimenting with wireless have warned that although the lure of ubiquitous computing is tempting, wireless networks generally are more vulnerable to cyber attacks than their hard-wired counterparts because information is transmitted through the air as opposed to across wires.

Even in Plano, where school officials plan to take advantage of new .11g components, Hirsch said hard-wired networks have their advantages.

“A … hard-wired infrastructure is, of course, still required,” he said. “We plan to continue to provide hard-wired capability to each classroom in addition to wireless access points to provide reliable, high-capacity points of delivery in schools—something wireless will continue to lag behind on.”

Links:

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp

IDC
http://www.idcresearch.com