The treatment of copyright law in the latest edition of SMU’s Information and Technology Services’ Technology News was woefully one-sided. The perspective provided was tilted and sounded as though it was provided by the copyright cartels (the RIAA and MPAA). No mention was made of what kind of material it is legal to share via P2P networks such as public domain material, non-copyrighted material and items the user owns the copyright for and wishes to distribute. In addition, no mention was made of the legitimate uses of P2P networks such as downloading works for which the user already has a license as an exercise of their Fair Use right to an archival copy.

It would have been better if the letter had informed readers of the legal uses of P2P networks. Sharing class notes with peers, distributing artistic works a student has created, ensuring the distribution of important distributable documents (like the Bill of Rights) and storage for group projects are all great applications of P2P technology in the educational setting. As a university, it should not be the job of SMU to tell students what they cannot do, but to enlighten them as to what is possible. This job extends to the ITS department as well.

In summary I am very disappointed with the nasty-gram ITS has published on the subject of file sharing and think it would be more beneficial for SMU to explain the positive ways the software can be employed.

Adam Keys
Senior computer science major