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University of Wyoming Offers New Course: Contributory Liability 101
Posted by Ren Bucholz on Friday, February 21 @ 02:00:36 EST File Sharing
Last fall, the RIAA, MPAA and others sent pedantic, concerned-sounding letters to universities in the hope that they would stop file-sharing on campus networks. The letters begged two questions: is it an ISP's responsibility to enforce copyrights for Mr. Valenti, and would doing so expose them to liability if they failed?

Whether or not it's their responsibility, the University of Wyoming (UoW) seems bent on learning the answer to the second question. By allowing a company called Audible Magic to surreptitiously sniff all the traffic on their network and keep a log, they seem to be inviting the prospect of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement lawsuits.

Of course, in the likely event that UoW doesn't fail and continues surveiling (and eventually policing) their students' net usage, it will set a nasty precedent for other universities and commercial ISPs who don't want to do Hollywood's dirty work.
 
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