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UWM against RIAA: Protector or Pain ?

A good coverage of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's response on the RIAA P2PLawsuit appeared in the Consumerist.

(Grant Robertson's now extinct blog has a good introduction to the issue).

This page apparently loads up when you try to access the Internet from within the University network.

The recording industry is threatening lawsuits against those who may have engaged in illegal file sharing. They are currently targeting students who live in university residence halls. Recently, UW- Madison and other universities have been notified that they will receive settlement letters that are to be passed on to the individuals whom the senders believe to be guilty of copyright infringement. Consistent with current network management procedures and our understanding of federal law, UW-Madison does not plan to forward these letters directly to campus network users. We will, of course, comply with a valid subpoena.

If from this it seems UWM seems to take a reasonable "I -will-protect-you" stance, the following could shake that foundation a bit.

However, if the UW-Madison is given cause to believe that a student, faculty or staff network user may have infringed on copyrights, it will take action. University network policies empower the CIO to terminate that person's network access until the matter is resolved.

Ummmm, now termination of network access. That is a serious price to pay.

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