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The i2hub is a P2P service connecting students over the fast Internet2 network that is being put together by universities and tech companies. It is billed as "by students, for students" and "the world's largest student community."
Naturally, the students have discovered a use for it besides trading philosophical ruminations: swapping music and movies. Internet2 is particularly good for this purpose, because a song takes seconds and a movie mere minutes.
Both the RIAA and the MPAA have now taken action. RIAA just filed suit against students at 18 different universities. C|Net News says:
Recording industry executives said i2Hub had become a serious problem over time as students believed they could not be observed trading files.
"i2Hub has been seen as a safe haven, and what we wanted to do was puncture that misconception," said Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA. "This has been a subversion of the research purposes for which Internet2 was developed." An MPAA press release (not yet online) also announced suits against some students, but details are not yet available. Internet2 is a particular threat to the film industry, which has been somewhat protected by the length of time it takes to download a movie over a conventional broadband connection. An industry fact sheet notes that 99 Terrabytes is enough to hold all the movies in a local blockbuster, and that at 1:23 p.m., PDT on April 11 there were 7,070 users on i2hub sharing over 99 Terrabytes of content. One user listed 328 movies available.
Neither RIAA nor MPAAA has sued the operators of i2hub, for obvious reasons -- the service raises difficult questions about the responsibility of the providers of such a hub for the uses made of it. You might call it Grokster squared. Everyone would rather avoid these completely, if possible, and there is certainly no point in taking them up until the Supreme Court decides Grokster.
But in the meantime:
Sherman said that no suits are being filed against the operators of the i2Hub network for now, although the group does have the names of the individuals who created the service
posted by James DeLong @ 11:30 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...
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