Letter to the Editor: OIT asks students to stop music downloads

Dear Editor:

I’m writing to express my sympathy with the frustration experienced by the entire campus over the slowness of the Internet this fall. I value the rich resources of the Internet, and I know the slowdown has affected many of you every day. It affects me every day also!

You may be surprised to learn that over 80 percent of our Internet traffic to and from Rider is downloading of music files. Those who participate in music sharing programs like KaZaA or Morphius may be trading music without even knowing it. Whenever you turn on your computer, it becomes a source from which others can download from your hard drive. You are sending your music into Rider’s Internet connection without knowing it and closing yourself, your friends, your instructors, and others out of other uses for the Internet.

As I’m sure you all know, downloading music is questionable legally and ethically. There is also the philosophical question: should Rider spend thousands of dollars to upgrade Internet infrastructure to enable trading of music? I certainly don’t have the authority to impinge on your freedom, but if enough of those programs are turned off, we will all enjoy a dramatic increase in Internet speed.

I also sympathize with your frustration over instant messaging. Last year, like other progressive institutions, Rider made a move into the future of Internet service that allows us to use only a few IP addresses (numbers that identify specific computers on the Internet) instead of the thousands of IP addresses required in the past. This configuration will provide many benefits for Rider once is it is completely operational. We are in contact with AOL, hoping they will fix the bug that interferes with your use of IM. In the meantime, simply shutting off IM when you are not using it will open a channel for a fellow student.

OIT has been dedicated to resolving these problems. Because we can’t work while classes are in session, we’ve been putting in many night and weekend hours. We are dependent on others, like our Internet Service Provider, to make changes over which we have very little control. We have been working hard to switch to a faster connection, and we hope to have it in place by the time you read this letter. But there are also ways that you can continue to help our entire community, like turning off your music-sharing programs or using a modem to download.

Carol S. Kondrach

Associate VP for Information Technologies, Office of Information Technologies