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From iTunes to Kazaa, one would be hard pressed to find a student on campus who has never downloaded music or movies from the Internet, legally - or not. But a June ruling has left a question mark for 6.25 million file-sharing enthusiasts nationwide.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a significant entertainment industry decision, ruled unanimously that peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing software Grokster is liable when its users illegally trade copyrighted files such as music MP3s.
The June 27 ruling, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., overturned two previous lower court decisions, citing evidence Grokster had marketed itself as a vehicle for illegal downloads, encouraging copyright violation.
Previously, lawyers argued programs such as Grokster, which allows users to swap files free of charge, had legitimate uses. The arguments cited a 1984 Supreme Court ruling releasing Sony from responsibility when consumers used its Betamax videocassette recorder to tape copyrighted movies.
Movie and music industry executives hailed the ruling as a major victory, while StreamCast networks warned the ruling would discourage technological innovation and steeled themselves for further legal battle. The case was sent back to lower courts, where it awaits trial.
Effect at UTD
The decision against Grokster means the software will most likely be shut down in the lower court trial, said Stanley Liebowitz, UTD professor of managerial economics, whose file sharing research was cited in the Supreme Court ruling.
"(The lower courts) were told in no uncertain language by the Supreme Court that we want you to look at it again and we are pretty sure that you're going to find that this is an infringement," Liebowitz said. "I think (Grokster's fate) is sealed."
So what does this mean for UTD file sharers?
Apparently, nothing new.
Long before the ruling, when file sharing pioneer Napster was all the rage - and still legal - universities were taking steps to combat students' illegal downloads. UTD was no exception.
When overzealous file sharers began to slow down the network, available bandwidth was decreased to discourage "hogging," said Doug Jackson, director of technology customer services.
Then the complaints started.
The recording industry began to send complaints to UTD about copyright violations, each of which had to be investigated and answered to under Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifications, said William Hargrove, executive director of information services.
Students were notified of specific complaints, Hargrove said, and most students' identities were protected during investigations.
Finally, in April 2004, the complaints heightened to several per week - sometimes several per day. Peer-to-peer protocols were blocked from crossing the campus-network to internet boundary, Hargrove said. BitTorrent protocol was blocked the following November for the same reasons.
"We kept getting complaints no matter how small (the bandwidth)," Jackson said. "Finally, we had no choice but to shut it off."
Now, he says, file sharing on campus has been immobilized.
As far as he knows, anyway.
"We have some pretty talented students," Jackson laughed.
Former UTD computer science freshman Jimmy Leonis is one of those students. He admits it's not easy to get past the administrative controls. But, he said, it can be done.
"The system takes all the computers and folds it into one system so from the outside it looks like one IP address," Leonis said. "Unfortunately, it cannot be penetrated by the normal file-sharer. So, you have to get crafty."
Leonis said he was able to use programs called MyTunes and Grouper to download music and movies while living in Waterview Park last year. MyTunes mimics Apple's popular pay-per-song iTunes software to download songs from its users, while Grouper allows groups of people to trade files. He added movie files can also be shared through iTunes by simply modifying the file name to end in '.mp3.'
One other alternative for Waterview residents is to forgo the free wireless and subscribe to cable internet for about $50 a month, like Roger Hsu.
"UTD wireless is worthless anyway," Hsu, a business administration sophomore, said. "You can't download on it."
While Leonis has amassed about 10,000 MP3s, about half of which were obtained while he was at UTD, he said he doesn't feel strongly about the debate on file sharing.
"It does deprive artists from something they ought to be paid for," Leonis said. "But then again, it's not right for the movie and recording industry to just bust people left and right because they want to line their pockets."
File Sharing Killed the Radio Star?
Though one of the most vocal opponents of file sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has sued individual downloaders before, p2p services remain popular.
Indeed, a few defiant declarations - "computer nerds will find a way" and "it's just too big to stop it" - emerged in the ruling's wake.
Major movie studios and recording labels contend file sharing has stolen a chunk of their profits, equating illegal downloading with stealing.
"Right now, there about 10 studies out and nine of them find that file sharing is harmful to the recording industry," said Liebowitz.
The recording industry attributes its 25 percent drop in revenue since 1999 to Internet piracy. The industry has retaliated through lawsuits, copy-proof technology on CDs and going after sites that make illegal downloads available.
Though major artists such as Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks applauded the ruling, not all recording companies mind file sharing. Independent labels have said they have benefited from file sharing's ability to generate word-of-mouth buzz.
"It is immoral, yeah, but at the same time I can equate downloading one or two songs if I go to their concert and I buy a t-shirt from them, because otherwise I would never have known they had existed," said Brock Hand, senior business administration major.
One major example is popular recording band Wilco. When their label refused to release their album 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot', Wilco offered it for free online.
Subsequent experimentations with Internet fueled their popularity, and their 2004 album, 'A Ghost Is Born', reached No. 8 on Billboard charts.
Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy has spoken in favor of file sharing and its benefits.
"I don't believe every download is a lost sale," Tweedy said in a November 2004 interview with Wired News.
And Hollywood, Too
Movie studios have also beefed up their efforts against file sharing, running anti-piracy ads, stationing guards at premieres to prevent the film from being covertly recorded and rushing films to DVDs to thwart file sharing's effect on post-theatrical release revenues.
Despite these actions, the movie industry has been suffering the worst box office decline in 20 years. The 19-weekend slump in domestic ticket sales, down 7.63 percent from last year, was only broken July 10 by a better-than-expected debut by comic book adaptation "Fantastic Four."
A June Associated Press-American Online poll found that 73 percent adults preferred watching movies at home on DVD, VHS or pay-per-view. Twenty-five percent said they had not been to see a movie in the past year, while 47 percent felt movies were getting worse.
While the movie industry continues its fight against piracy, some believe the sagging numbers are due to the films themselves.
"I think this slump is product-driven," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Exhibitor Relations, in a Wichita Eagle (Kansas) interview.
A similar 17-weekend slump in 1985 occurred when movies became available on videocassette. In 2004, DVD sales and rentals totaled $21.2 billion, easily outpacing the $3.2 billion January to June 2005 box office showings, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, a nonprofit trade consortium.
The Future of p2p
Just three days after the Supreme Court ruling was made in their favor, the RIAA launched 784 more suits against individual downloaders.
While the movie and recording industries championed the ruling as a clear victory, digital rights groups expressed concerns the ruling would cause a slew of lawsuits against p2p companies. Also, the American Civil Liberties Union and Consumers Union noted technological innovation could be harmed if the decision was too broadly interpreted.
A lawsuit would have to prove "intent" and "inducement" of illegal behavior on the firm's part.
"What (the ruling) says is that if you're a bad player, meaning that you're clearly inducing people to violate copyright, that you can get shut down," Liebowitz said, adding Grokster clearly did so. "They were very blatant. In some cases they apparently told their users that it was legal to do things that were illegal."
Liebowitz said the Supreme Court would probably have to make another ruling on the definition of inducement. He noted three justices wrote that under their interpretation of the Sony Betamax case, Grokster would have been guilty even if they hadn't encouraged infringement. However, three other justices wrote in a concurring opinion if there hadn't been encouragement of bad behavior, they would not have ruled against Grokster.
"The court clearly is going to be split when the tougher decision comes, when the company isn't clearly encouraging infringement, but a fair amount is going on," he said.
One way for companies to sidestep the ruling's implications altogether though, is to move, Liebowitz said, citing Kazaa's move to an island off the Australian coast. He added more lawsuits would probably be filed against p2p firms, but said record companies should try to move away from CDs to a format more difficult to steal from.
"If they're going to be saved, it's going to have to be technology that saves them," he said.
If You Can't Beat 'em: Alternatives
In a bid to capitalize on the popularity of file sharing, companies have begun to offer music files for a fee.
Apple iTunes was the first, offering 99-cent downloads in conjunction with Apple's popular iPod MP3 player.
Apple's success left other players vying for a piece of the pie. Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Real Rhapsody, and retail giant Wal-Mart have emerged, offering all-you-can-download monthly subscriptions and free trials to lure customers.
Even the once independent, underground Napster has gone corporate, teaming with Dell to provide servers and Napster music subscriptions to universities, though initial reports say participating students still prefer iTunes to the free Napster.
Though new paid-music services are springing up, Liebowitz says it's all moot.
"Only two percent of the market has downloaded paid music. If people can get it for free, they're not going to pay for it," he said.
According to a June survey released by Ipsos Public Affairs, two-thirds of college students don't see anything wrong with downloading files without paying.
However, Andy Nawoj, a psychology sophomore, is part of the minority uncomfortable with illegal downloading, though he has done it before.
"I have a bad conscience, I do feel kind of bad about it," said Nawoj. "If you buy the CD you get to hear more of their songs instead of just the three you wanted."
Though the Ipsos study found 50 percent of college students use campus connections to download, 70 percent did feel threatened by lawsuits.
"Whenever you do something like this you have to go under the shadow that you might get caught," Leonis said. "It bothers me enough to be careful."
The threat of a lawsuit and a Supreme Court ruling hasn't stopped students from downloading, though.
"It's pretty easy to use Google just to search (for MP3's)," Hand said. "I mean yeah, it's free music."
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