Free college network sunk by pirates
THE UNIVERSITY of NSW plans to axe its free wireless internet service because students are using it to download pirated music, movies and games.
Michael Kirby-Lewis, the university’s IT supremo, said that complaints about illegal downloading by students had risen from one or two a month to "a number a day".
He penned a note to all students warning that the viability of the university's free wireless network had been "placed under threat" due to incidents of illegal downloading.
The university will now fine students $1,000 who use its free wireless network for illegal downloading with the cash generated by the fines being used to fund student facilities around campus. But if things do not improve then the network will be shut down.
Kirby-Lewis claimed that 40 per cent of UNSW's students used the free wireless network. One student downloaded 7GB of illegal material in a single day. µ
L'Inq
Sydney Morning Herald
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I'm from a University about 1 and a half hours south of UNSW, and this is how our Uni curbs abuse on their network.

We get a 400MB quota every session. That's 400MB over 13 weeks.

Therefore we can't even dream about downloading music, let alone going to YouTube.

Domestic students pay upwards of $1,000 per subject (so at the minimum, $8,000/yr) and international students pay up to $20,000/yr. And with all these fees we still only get 800MB quota per YEAR.

The wireless coverage is good, no doubt, covering the whole campus, but what's the point when you could blow through your allowance in seconds?

Don't get me started on our 14MB e-mail allowances either...
There are companies which produce these "complaints" for the MAFIAA automatically for anything related to protocols like BitTorrent, whether an infringement actually occurred or not. Then they leave it up to the universities (and ISPs) to prove the students' (or customers') innocence, which the universities (and ISPs) will not be able or willing to do. And that spells the end of a great idea, such as a free wifi network. The MAFIAA wants to maintain its monopoly at all costs.

I hope the students have guts and skills. This would be the right time to set up an independent wifi mesh. For starters, I suggest to take a look at
http://freifunk.net/
Click on "global" or any specific language and learn more. Maybe in a year or two, the university’s IT supremo will have a better life, on the beach or wherever.