Ever wondered why Bentley provides us with Napster?
Anjali Panse
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: News
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So there are basically a million ways to go about getting a new song- iTunes, Napster, maybe actually buying a CD? Of course, for the people on a budget there are about twice as many unconventional ways that don't involve emptying one's wallet, most of which involve free P2P, or peer-to-peer, programs. Well, with new P2P site blockers on the Bentley campus in place, you are going to have to eat out a little less if you want to keep up-to-date with Hollywood.
If you are lucky not to fall victim to the two most common dangers with P2P file-sharing, legal lawsuit and computer viruses and/or spyware, P2P will open a world to you of unlimited illegal access illegal to all copyrighted materials, be it songs, movies, television, etc.
Unfortunately, few actually make it around these two pricy consequences.
As police reports have recently been proving time and time again, it really doesn't take much for the RIAA or MPAA to identify the IP addresses of the transferred materials and it's "even easier to match that IP address and content with an individual. Most people don't know the source of the material they're downloading, so it's virtually impossible to validate its integrity," said Tracy Logan, Vice President for Information Technology and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
Not knowing the source of your materials creates its own branch of problems. As they say, if you don't know where it's been, don't drink it. The same applies here. While attempting to download that song or movie to your hard drive, who knows what other carry-on virus or worm you are inadvertently putting into your system. Such things could potentially send out personal information about your activities to an unknown third party, or at worst, damage your computer.
Despite the fact, the chances of running across anyone who doesn't either know someone who uses P2P or who doesn't uses it themselves are about zero to none. "Well it's illegal to jaywalk, but people do it anyway. I just feel like it's not that big of a deal, even though through with all the publicity it obviously is," said one freshman user. That student is hardly alone with these sentiments.
If you are lucky not to fall victim to the two most common dangers with P2P file-sharing, legal lawsuit and computer viruses and/or spyware, P2P will open a world to you of unlimited illegal access illegal to all copyrighted materials, be it songs, movies, television, etc.
Unfortunately, few actually make it around these two pricy consequences.
As police reports have recently been proving time and time again, it really doesn't take much for the RIAA or MPAA to identify the IP addresses of the transferred materials and it's "even easier to match that IP address and content with an individual. Most people don't know the source of the material they're downloading, so it's virtually impossible to validate its integrity," said Tracy Logan, Vice President for Information Technology and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
Not knowing the source of your materials creates its own branch of problems. As they say, if you don't know where it's been, don't drink it. The same applies here. While attempting to download that song or movie to your hard drive, who knows what other carry-on virus or worm you are inadvertently putting into your system. Such things could potentially send out personal information about your activities to an unknown third party, or at worst, damage your computer.
Despite the fact, the chances of running across anyone who doesn't either know someone who uses P2P or who doesn't uses it themselves are about zero to none. "Well it's illegal to jaywalk, but people do it anyway. I just feel like it's not that big of a deal, even though through with all the publicity it obviously is," said one freshman user. That student is hardly alone with these sentiments.