Internet Regulations and other tech usage @ Stanford

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<p>I have 3 questions.</p>

<p>1) Are there any regulations regarding downloading torrents? Has anyone been in trouble/suspended for downloading xvids?</p>

<p>2) Is free to air HDTV available in the Stanford area? I’m just wondering because I might by a HDTV tuner card for my computer.</p>

<p>3) Are scooters a popular mode of transportation in the Stanford/Palo Alto area?</p>

<p><a href=“http://canada.aprilia.com/upload/modelli/scooter/p00533_0113.jpg[/url]”>http://canada.aprilia.com/upload/modelli/scooter/p00533_0113.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>1) You will get owned hard if you use torrents (or so they say). Rapidshare and any other direct download is ok though, they can’t catch you. </p>

<p>2) Don’t know</p>

<p>3) I have never seen anyone use one before.</p>

3

<p>2) I pick up channels 2 (KTVU),4 (KRON),5 (CBS),7 (ABC), 9 (PBS), 11 (NBC), and 20 (WB) from my home about a mile away from Stanford. They’re probably a few more, but these are the major networks that broadcast HD.</p>

<p>3) Lived in Palo Alto all my life and I have rarely seen any scooters. There’s probably 100 BMWs for every scooter in Palo Alto. Outside of Stanford, riding a scooter = pwnage. SUV drivers speed down Page Mill and Foothill at 55+/65+ mph when the posted speed limit is 35/45 mph. Palo Altans are also known for Calif. rolling stops in addition to never using turn signals. It feels dangerous enough driving a SUV in Palo Alto… I can’t imagine what a scooter must be like.</p>

4

<p>1) I work for the computing department, so I can answer this pretty definitively. If the network detects your computer downloading torrents (they can tell by port number), you’ll get an e-mail which details the copyright issues and so forth you may be running into, but that’s it. You won’t get another e-mail for the rest of the quarter, and AFAIK no one has gotten sued for downloading xvids like the RIAA/mp3 situation. Stanford doesn’t disconnect your connection unless the copyright holder complains.</p>

<p>2) don’t know</p>

<p>3) The campus perimeter has bollards that keeps cars out, and scooters are not allowed inside this perimeter. Other than that, I’ve seen an occasional grad student ride scooters around, since they’re popular in foreign countries.</p>

5

<p>1) Torrents is not the thing that gets you “owned hard.” It’s more what the torrent contains that’s troubling. Music P2P like limewire is more dangerous than torrenting. Stanford has been targeted by MPAA/RIAA since 2005. Last year stanford got ~80 DMCA letters and 15 students got the friendly “you now own the RIAA $20000” pre-litigation letters.
One thing I should mention is that P2P traffic shaping is notorious on the campus network…
2) The on-air channels are not HD, if you really want HD you need cable.
3) Scooters are not popular at all. Bike + bus is the way to go without a car.</p>

6

<p>That sucks, I thought scooters are more common now because of the high gas prices. In Canada there’s not a day that passes by when I don’t see a scooter. You can drive 100km on only 2 litres.</p>

<p>Thanks, im_blue, that’s good to know, I don’t want to get in trouble. In Canada, the regulations are sort of lax</p>

7

<p>Get a private VPN account or consider a mobile broadband internet service to protect your privacy. Despite the claims they tell you, some schools do actively monitor web traffic. If you’re not 100% sure if your school does monitor your web usage or not, don’t take any chances. While the only sure way to be safe is not to download content illegaly, you are much safer using your own web service that you pay for than using the school’s network if you wish to do something naughty. Why do you think college students get caught downloading illegal content at such a higher rate than the average American file sharer? I suggest mobile broadband over a wired cable or DSL connection because some schools are wired only to allow access to their network.</p>