GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
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join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
1 edit |  Privacy concerns for the paranoid only
“Unless a school using the tool has firewalls on the borders of its network designed to block unsolicited Internet traffic -- and a great many universities do not -- that Web server is going to be visible and accessible by anyone with a Web browser.” This part was left out of the story summary:
The toolkit allows an administrator to require a username and password for access to the Web server. The problem is that the person responsible for running the toolkit is never prompted create a username and password. What's more, while Apache includes a feature that can record when an outsider views the site, that logging is turned off by default in the MPAA's University Toolkit. So, unless the admin is dumber than a pet rock, the data can be protected from everyone but the admin. So, where's the problem? Oh, I know - the admin may actually have the info to figure out which students on campus are doing something illegal. God forbid that ever happen.
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
| said by GOLFnSUN  :“Unless a school using the tool has firewalls on the borders of its network designed to block unsolicited Internet traffic -- and a great many universities do not -- that Web server is going to be visible and accessible by anyone with a Web browser.” This part was left out of the story summary: The toolkit allows an administrator to require a username and password for access to the Web server. The problem is that the person responsible for running the toolkit is never prompted create a username and password. What's more, while Apache includes a feature that can record when an outsider views the site, that logging is turned off by default in the MPAA's University Toolkit. So, unless the admin is dumber than a pet rock, the data can be protected from everyone but the admin. So, where's the problem? Oh, I know - the admin may actually have the info to figure out which students on campus are doing something illegal. God forbid that ever happen. You honestly believe ZERO info goes back to the industry? Better wake up
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People pray to God because they're told to. |
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gatorkram
Spelling and Grammer impared
Premium
join:2002-07-22
Winterville, NC
clubs:
 ·Embarq
 ·linode
| I find it hard to believe that the admins running the school networks would need this tool to know know whats going on over their networks.
The real question is why should they have to? No other ISPs that I am aware of are required to police what is going over their networks.
Sounds like a bunch of shit to me.
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gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
·Cruzio Internet
3 edits | reply to GOLFnSUN
The students and interns pretty much ran the IT dept where I went to school. The prof's were to busy to be bothered with mundane network administration.
They had hired faculty staff working there also (old students.)
Apparently a lot of schools are already blocking p2p, and the students have setup thier own private intranets alongside the regular school networks with a wink/wink nod/nod from the admins.
Or was that only 1 nod? Been so long  |
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madrhino
join:2004-07-03
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
| reply to GOLFnSUN
said by GOLFnSUN : So, where's the problem? Oh, I know - the admin may actually have the info to figure out which students on campus are doing something illegal. God forbid that ever happen. The problem is that the administrations job is not law enforcement for huge,thug corporations.
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null | reply to GOLFnSUN
Gee isn't it ironic the MPAA disables the logging on their webserver but gets all pissy when other people disables the logging on theirs?
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Am Heimcomputer sitz' ich hier, und programmier' die Zukunft mir |
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to madrhino
said by madrhino :said by GOLFnSUN : So, where's the problem? Oh, I know - the admin may actually have the info to figure out which students on campus are doing something illegal. God forbid that ever happen. The problem is that the administrations job is not law enforcement for huge,thug corporations. "Law enforcement"... besides the lady that took a screencap of spiderman to show her son... has anyone been CRIMINALLY tried for copyright infringement related to uploading/downloading? It seems to me the majority of the activity is CIVIL LAWSUITS. I can sue you for having blue eyes.. but that's not illegal.
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Am Heimcomputer sitz' ich hier, und programmier' die Zukunft mir |
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swhx7
Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to GOLFnSUN
The "tool" is just a Linux distro with Apache and a packet logger. Any competent network administrator could set up something to accomplish the same purpose, much better, without any help from a ccopyright cartel's enforcement arm.
And contrary to billing, it does *not* detect or measure copyright infringement or illegal traffic. What it does is identify traffic by protocol (if it's not encrypted). There's no way a setup like this can tell even what the content is, much less whether it's authorized or not.
So it would seem it's the MPAA that's "dumber than a pet rock", as their history of coping with p2p shows. But wait, there's caginess in their mania.
Presumably the MPAA will equate all Bittorrent (for example) with infringement, just as they equate infringing copies with lost sales. The purpose seems to be to set up a situation where if the schools install the spyware, the MPAA can spew fantasy-based number-monkeying "piracy" propaganda - and if the schools refuse, the MPAA will depict them as protectors of pirates.
If the buggy-whip makers had been as fanatically devious as this bunch when *they* were going out of business, we'd have been in horse-drawn carriages well into the 20th century. |
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
1 edit |  said by swhx7 : Well said!
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People pray to God because they're told to. |
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Kylemaul
Lovin' My Firefox 1.5.x
Premium
join:2001-03-30
North Port, FL
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to swhx7
said by swhx7 :...The purpose seems to be to set up a situation where if the schools install the spyware, the MPAA can spew fantasy-based number-monkeying "piracy" propaganda - and if the schools refuse, the MPAA will depict them as protectors of pirates... What's incredibly laughable about this is that the savvy students (I anticipate there will be many) will regard the acceptance of this as a poorly thought-out reaction on the part of their school's administration. For those students heading to college for their freshman year, this type of 'campus policing' could be a detraction from picking a school to go to in the first place. It would have turned me away, knowing that a school had kow-towed to any entertainment corporation for non-educational purposes. "Protectors of Pirates" indeed--kind of like calling certain forefathers "Tax Pirates".  |
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hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| reply to gatorkram
ISPs are private businesses and most colleges are public schools and receive state and federal money. They're required by ethics and laws to do whats right. But then again you could always be like EMU in MI and lie and cover up about everything; including murders on your campus but thats another topic. |
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nutcr0cker
join:2003-04-02
Chandler, AZ | reply to GOLFnSUN
Awww...a simpleton with security concerns how cute ) |
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