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Raid at OSU shuts down file-sharing on Internet - students sharing pirated music and movie downloads on their Students were draining 10 percent of the university's vast computer system
Ohio State students sharing pirated music and movie downloads on their dormitory computers were draining 10 percent of the university's vast computer system.
That drain led OSU police on Monday to four dormitory rooms where students were suspected of providing the free entertainment to thousands of students. Armed with search warrants, the officers interviewed students in those rooms and seized five computers.
No one has been charged with a crime, OSU Police Chief Ron Michalec said.
"They were file-sharing and going around the (campus computer's protective) fire wall. It was taking up time on the school's intranet system,'' Michalec said, explaining how detectives became aware of the increased computer use.
Suspicions about what was using up the computer network led to a three-month investigation.
Students were using a legal file-sharing software called Direct Connect to share illegal downloads among computers in dormitories, police said.
"It was sweet. You could download a movie in like three minutes,'' freshman Jake Chapman said. "I watched Old School like a week after it came out.''
The Direct Connect network involved more than 3,000 students and trillions of pages of data called terabytes, computer detective Willis Amweg wrote in an affidavit requesting the search warrants.
"Assuming that one printed page of information consumes about 5 kilobytes of space, a terabyte is equal to about 214,748,364 printed pages,'' Amweg wrote. "The size of the (OSU) network has grown to between 8 and 12 terabytes of storage space.''
Although many OSU students used Direct Connect, few knew who was operating the server.
Students at Steeb Hall said police came to the dormitory for freshmen about 8:30 Monday night and took a computer from a student's room.
"Not too many people knew he was doing it. It was a big secret,'' freshman Chris Sinclair said.
Police also raided rooms in Morrill Tower and Houck House.
Direct Connect provided a faster way to download music, movies and pornography, students said.
"OSU has a router around their servers that slows down downloads,'' said Chad Pietkowski, an OSU freshman who lives in Steeb. "Direct Connect goes around that, so you can get it really fast.''
Bob Kalal, director of information-technology policy and systems at Ohio State, said it's not the first time the university has been involved in blocking Internet piracy.
"We've gotten notices from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in the past, and we've taken care of it,'' he said.
The music and movie industries have pushed for a crackdown on piracy, which has cut into sales of CDs and DVDs. The OSU police raids have been played out on several other campuses across the country.
Students could face criminal and civil prosecution for Internet piracy if copyright material is found and student discipline for violating university policies on computer use, police said.
OSU officials warn students that running a server out of a dormitory could cost them their computer privileges.
Frequently, students don't realize their computers have been "hijacked'' to hide the identity of another student operating an illegal server.
Names of four students appear in court documents, along with hundreds of user names of clients in the Direct Connect chain. Police also confiscated e-mails and chats between students that indicated they knew they were violating university policy and the law.
The students living in those raided rooms declined to comment last night.
Raid at OSU shuts down file-sharing on Internet - students sharing pirated music and movie downloads on their Students were draining 10 percent of the university's vast computer system
Ohio State students sharing pirated music and movie downloads on their dormitory computers were draining 10 percent of the university's vast computer system.
That drain led OSU police on Monday to four dormitory rooms where students were suspected of providing the free entertainment to thousands of students. Armed with search warrants, the officers interviewed students in those rooms and seized five computers.
No one has been charged with a crime, OSU Police Chief Ron Michalec said.
"They were file-sharing and going around the (campus computer's protective) fire wall. It was taking up time on the school's intranet system,'' Michalec said, explaining how detectives became aware of the increased computer use.
Suspicions about what was using up the computer network led to a three-month investigation.
Students were using a legal file-sharing software called Direct Connect to share illegal downloads among computers in dormitories, police said.
"It was sweet. You could download a movie in like three minutes,'' freshman Jake Chapman said. "I watched Old School like a week after it came out.''
The Direct Connect network involved more than 3,000 students and trillions of pages of data called terabytes, computer detective Willis Amweg wrote in an affidavit requesting the search warrants.
"Assuming that one printed page of information consumes about 5 kilobytes of space, a terabyte is equal to about 214,748,364 printed pages,'' Amweg wrote. "The size of the (OSU) network has grown to between 8 and 12 terabytes of storage space.''
Although many OSU students used Direct Connect, few knew who was operating the server.
Students at Steeb Hall said police came to the dormitory for freshmen about 8:30 Monday night and took a computer from a student's room.
"Not too many people knew he was doing it. It was a big secret,'' freshman Chris Sinclair said.
Police also raided rooms in Morrill Tower and Houck House.
Direct Connect provided a faster way to download music, movies and pornography, students said.
"OSU has a router around their servers that slows down downloads,'' said Chad Pietkowski, an OSU freshman who lives in Steeb. "Direct Connect goes around that, so you can get it really fast.''
Bob Kalal, director of information-technology policy and systems at Ohio State, said it's not the first time the university has been involved in blocking Internet piracy.
"We've gotten notices from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in the past, and we've taken care of it,'' he said.
The music and movie industries have pushed for a crackdown on piracy, which has cut into sales of CDs and DVDs. The OSU police raids have been played out on several other campuses across the country.
Students could face criminal and civil prosecution for Internet piracy if copyright material is found and student discipline for violating university policies on computer use, police said.
OSU officials warn students that running a server out of a dormitory could cost them their computer privileges.
Frequently, students don't realize their computers have been "hijacked'' to hide the identity of another student operating an illegal server.
Names of four students appear in court documents, along with hundreds of user names of clients in the Direct Connect chain. Police also confiscated e-mails and chats between students that indicated they knew they were violating university policy and the law.
The students living in those raided rooms declined to comment last night.