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Volume CXXXIII, Number 9 |
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Bowdoin's latest rule game
HUGH HILL
Everyone who read James Fisher's piece in the Orient ("Students
stymied by copyright violations," October 26) regarding Bowdoin
College's recent attempts to enforce the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright
Act should be dismayed.
It is a sad day when an institution dedicated to the dissemination of
knowledge and information becomes the enforcer for corporate greed. The
fact that Bowdoin enforced this law should be a matter of concern for
everyone in the Bowdoin community.
Bowdoin's first priority, and that of her Computing and Information Services
staff, should always be the members of her community. The way in which
Eric Morin '02 was treated by CIS is inexcusable.
Why didn't CIS contact Morin and ask him:
A) If he had actually downloaded material that was technically in violation
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
B) If he still had the files on his hard drive
C) If he would he remove the offending files from his hard drive
Why did it take over ten days before Morin was notified as to his denial
of service?
These questions are distressing at best. The treatment given is based
solely on the word of an organization not in any way affiliated with the
College. It raises serious questions about Bowdoin's commitment to its
students.
It must be noted that new steps taken by Bowdoin this week are a great
step forward and will, hopefully, prevent the abuse suffered by Mr. Morin
and the other students. CIS has, on the whole, had a positive history
in relation to the rest of the College. It can only be hoped that this
treatment was an aberration and not a harbinger of things to come.
In a larger sense, this issue begs the question as to how far the College
should go in enforcing this new law. Obviously the College does not want
to be in violation of the law. However, the College does occasionally
turn a blind eye to some of the more dubious laws of this nation and of
this state. If you doubt me on this, head to any College-sponsored campus
wide to witness Security blatantly ignoring certain ridiculous laws regarding
a twenty-one year age limit.
To stretch it even further, I'm sure that some of the College's residential
policies violate Maine's Victorian-era moral legislation regarding the
co-habitation of unmarried people. However, I do applaud Bowdoin for its
selective enforcement of some of the sillier laws of this land.
I would argue that the College afford the DMCA the same treatment it
gives other ridiculous laws. Intellectual property should be preserved;
that is a given. This should be balanced with the desire of the academic
community for the free and unfettered flow of information. It is not hard
to foresee some Machiavellian corporate lawyer forbidding access to an
academic site because the author quoted copyrighted material without paying
whatever exorbitant fee is demanded.
On the other hand, the College should enforce the law. Obviously students
profiting off the illegal distribution of copyrighted material should
be stopped. But when a 19 year-old student who downloads the newest teeny
pop song in between classes is threatened with disciplinary and legal
action, the boundary of the ridiculous is crossed.
If Bowdoin wants to enforce this law, so be it. The College has managed to, thus far, walk a fine line between compliance and enforcement with most other ridiculous laws. Let us hope that the digital copyright issue is handled in the same, sensible manner.