FC: Australian schools swept up in broad anti-piracy net

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 08:57:14 +1000 (EST)
From: Ian Cumming <ian () ids org au>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Judge backs labels' MP3 search

Hi Declan,

A while ago I wrote to with concern that my University, including two
others in Australia were being forced to provide record companies with
an audit of their students' files.

Now it seems that Sony and EMI aren't happy with `find / -name *.mp3`.

They want to use computer forensic software such as EnCase[1] to conduct a
large scale search for copyright material on the University campus.

Last weekend's Australian reported[2]:

   Justice Tamberlin preferred the search method proposed by Mr Thackray,
   which included using specialist forensic software known as EnCase, to
   the method proposed by the universities, which he said would prove too
   limited.

   Nevertheless, he said the method proposed by Mr Thackray would "reveal
   a great deal of extraneous information , some of which may be
   privileged or subject to confidentiality obligations".

   "It must be remembered that none of the parties in this application, it
   seems, are aware as to the full content of the material contained in
   the very extensive records," he said

So it seems my personal privacy is going to be thrown out the window,
all for the sake of scaring a few students who thought it would be fun
to run Kazaa, and the record companies who thought it would be worthwile
pursuing them...

What do other politechers think about this? Is this worth fighting for?

[1] http://www.guidancesoftware.com/products/software/encaseforensic/index.shtm
[2] 
http://australianit.news.com.au/common/print/0,7208,6518258%255E15306%255E%255Ebv,00.html




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