James Delahunty
17 May 2007 8:58
Sanford University has responded to being fingered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as one of the worst 25 schools for piracy by enforcing reconnection fees for students caught up in DMCA complaints. To cover the costs involved with keeping up with the number of file sharing complaints received, Stanford will disconnect students who receive DMCA complaints or pre-litigation letters and charge a fee to be reconnected.
Stanford claims that the money spent on copyright enforcement related activities is "an irresponsible waste of Stanford's resources." Upon the first complaint against a student, the Information Security Office (ISO) will forward a copy to the student and request that infringing material be removed. If the student does not respond or remove the material within 48 hours, he/she will be disconnected from the school network and charged a $100 reconnection fee.
Any further offense will lead to an immediate disconnection from the network. For a student caught twice, a $500 reconnection fee will be charged. Upon the third instance, a student will have to indemnify the university against any further copyright violations and pay a $1,000 fee for a new account on the school network to regain access and will be referred to Judicial Affairs for disciplinary action.
While the action by the record industry on students has helped it to gain significant media attention and get the subject raised in congress, more and more students are staying one step ahead by going down the "darknet" route to avoid being caught.
Source:
Ars Technica