RIAA lists top 25 universities handing out piracy notices
By Darren Murph 
posted Feb 22nd 2007 9:56PM
posted Feb 22nd 2007 9:56PM
The "good guys" have tried to tempt college kids with free legal music for far too long to no avail, and after continuous failed attempts at gaining traction here in the US, it's no surprise that the RIAA would devote precious man-hours to concocting a most-wanted list of pirating schools. It should be noted that the top 25 is based on the amount of warnings sent out from the university to its students, and some schools may be omitted simply due to a lack of response on the administration's end. Nevertheless, it's reported that over three times as many infringement notices have been sent out during the 2006 - 2007 school year versus the year prior, but the RIAA did attribute some of that boost to its heightened awareness and tracking capabilities. Interestingly enough, the top spot holder doesn't seem to be overly concerned about its position, as Purdue feels the "service provider" shouldn't be the one lashing out at "criminals," essentially brushing that RIAA grief right off its shoulder. Still, we all know what you're here for, and that's to see if your alma mater made the dubious cut (full list after the jump), and while some here at Engadget can [Via TWW]
Copyright infringement notices handed out during 2006 - 2007 academic year:
- Ohio University - 1,287
- Purdue University - 1,068
- University of Nebraska at Lincoln - 1,002
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville - 959
- University of South Carolina - 914
- University of Massachusetts at Amherst - 897
- Michigan State University - 753
- Howard University - 572
- North Carolina State University - 550
- University of Wisconsin at Madison - 513
- University of South Florida - 490
- Syracuse University - 488
- Northern Illinois University - 487
- University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire - 473
- Boston University - 470
- Northern Michigan University - 457
- Kent State University - 424
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - 400
- University of Texas at Austin - 371
- North Dakota State University - 360
- Indiana University - 353
- Western Kentucky University - 353
- Seton Hall University - 338
- Arizona State University - 336
- Marshall University - 331
Yeah MSU! Dropped from #1 to number 7. I am so proud of my school
fight fight rah team fight
vic-tory for M-S-U
My friend just got busted here at UCLA (I told him so, idiot didn't listen). Interesting to see that almost none of them are out here in the West. Maybe this is a list of dumbest 25 schools - anyone halfway intelligent should know that the RIAA is watching campuses like a hawk.
#9 - North Carolina State University - 550
Yeah! Go WolfPack!!
Proud of it!
if anyone of those schools doesnt at least share 60TBs, it shouldnt be on there.
Go Syracuse.
Seriously, I didn't realize we had so many notices handed out. Thats 1/20 of the university population. I better turn of my bittorrent client!
As always may the members of the RIAA all burn in Hell.
holler at UMass hahaha
Haha, the majority of those schools are in the midwest. We must like our stolen music (and beer).
Univ of Miami dodges the bullet - no pun intended!
Kids here aren't smart enough to steal music :(
@ John
Awesome to see U Miami comment so soon in thread. Gotta luv 'em 'Canes- best ball teams $$ can buy.
Granny's an alumna (class of 69) and proud of it.
Next time when you download stuff with BitTorrent, make sure also start your PeerGuardian! Just a peace of mind.
SafePeer, the first plugin I install for Azureus!
Yeah go Bobcats. We might have got our butts kicked in the MAC title game but at least were the #1 pirates!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you should put the content of this site under a creative commons license if you're so into this anti-IP-protection thing.
so someone explain to me.. what happens to people that get caught.. do they just get a notice that says stop? like a warning... or do they have the internet taken away for a year.. do they have a fine.. what happens? one of my friends said it might happen to him. does anyone have knowledge on this topic? what happened to your friends
MIT isn't on there for a reason- The students are smart enough not to get caught.....
And there are so few undergrads and graduate students very rarely live on campus.
HAHA...I was having that exact same thought.
#13....GO HUSKIES!!! NIU WHATCHA GONNA DO!!!
Totally unrelated to the topic, but that picture is from Coover Hall at Iowa State University - my home building. Just thought it was cool that one of our labs got pictured on Engadget :)
That is pretty rad, just do a google image search for college computer lab and set the filter to large images and there you get a pic of 1212 Coover at ISU, sadly though, I don't see myself in there nor recognize any of my peeps. Engadget (never afraid to just steal some pic from the internets) RULES!!
Holla atcha boyyyyyyyyy-eeeeee!
University of Nebraska - Lincoln #3, this story was front page news in the Lincoln city newspaper today. It is VERY rare that a student is contacted and I've never heard of anyone getting in serious trouble for pirating anything.
I never heard of it happening while I was there either. I don't see the point of publishing a list of "Go to these schools if you enjoy being harassed for your network use"
Go Boilermakers! From 37 to 1,068 in just one year!
#13 Northern Illinois University...Huskies do it doggy style!
Hmm...i thought we were going to be higher then 15. I bet two years ago we were a little higher.
#13 Northern Illinois University! Huskies do it doggy style!
MSU had the crown, and lost it. For shame.
Sonofa.... Arizona State near the bottom when it comes to debauchery and illegal acts??!!!??!! We STARTED the FIRST on campus porn movie, the 50 foot bong and pro-sports steroids at the collegate level. I thought they could pull better than the lower 20's on the top 25 list :(
First they make the whole campus dry, then this....Not the ASU I graduated from...
UT Knox, also in paper today. Only idiots get caught. Talked to this sorority girl who had been issued citations twice. She brushes it off like its nothing. The second time she had to give her computer to OIT to erase all pirated data. She said the guy there "fixed it so she couldnt be caught again" LOL!
We're number 2!!!!! BOILER UP!!! We're coming after you, Ohio U, so watch your backs.
Yay! I'm a statistic on Engadget!. Without me USF would be only 489... ah, to contribute to something greater...
These numbers need to be normalized against the number of students in attendance at the respective school.
The headline and text is misleading: these aren't the top 25 handing out notices to students, they're the top 25 the RIAA is dunning with their notes.
See, for instance, Purdue, which isn't handing out notices to their students at all.
Hell yea! Go Purdue! As a current student I must say even though we're number 2, we have to be the most pirate-friendly campus in existance. DCgate was a special protocol app that worked with DC++ to optimize file sharing just for Purdue campus. There has been a recent switch to a new program called dtella, a streamlined, de-centralized system that works independently of IRC servers and everything else that tied DCgate down. With all its speed and security we'll surely make it to the top next year. Which of course, is nothing to be proud of, its a terrible thing that deprives the poor starving artists of money that was rightfully theirs. Because the record companies, which fuel the RIAA, along with legal representation, management, production, and agent don't deprive them of cash thats rightfully theirs, no, never.
Hummm...No major tech schools on the list. Where are Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, CalTech, MIT etc.
Is it that these students are smarter than those after Liberal Arts Degrees, LONG LIVE THE ENGINEER...
GO HOKIES (VT)
Like other's have said... there are two reasons the tech schools aren't listed
1) They're smart enough not to
2) They tend to be small enough that they won't rack up as many notices as big state schools
actually bob, alot of those schools listed ARE top tech/engineering schools. they're just located in the midwest. look it up.
And I'm sure this will have a huuuuge effect. Ay worst people will have to get copies of music from each other instead of downloading it.
Rutgers University isn't on there but god bless them they do it right. They don't have anything in the dorm space visible to the outside. Using PAT all 16k students appear to be coming from the same exact OC-3 pipes they have as everything else university-wide.
Woohoo... #2
I've noticed that Purdue doesn't care. The only warnings I've ever seen anyone get are for download limit infractions.
I'll admit I found the title misleading too.
But hey, I'm at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, so, DAYUM.
I'm surprised that much of the student population can use a computer, much less download music.
#21 Indiana University! ONE OF THOSE 353 NOTICES WAS TO ME! HBO pinched me for downloading episodes of Rome!
EDIT: Smart enough not to get caught....
Sorry
It's all about keeping it on a private internal network, using DC++. Which is where the engineering schools are at. I've personally downloaded at speeds in excess of 3 MB/s, it's pretty sweet.
i almost have my 500GB WD mybook filled thanks to the speedy connection at Indiana U. i never received a notice either. RIAA doesn't know what the fuck it's doing. what a joke.
And where is UND that is all we do here
GO NORTHERN ILLINOIS ROCK'N AT #13
hey john, how big is your dc++ network? we actually get 12mb/s max, 10mb/s average at our school; as in how many TBs do you share?
but yeh, who torrents? these schools are full of idiots; use private networks and only the top shares on each network are the ones getting the media and hosting it on the hub.
yeh these schools are stupid; use dc++.
12mb/s downloads are so nice to have. john, how big is the share on your hub?
We be from TENNESSEE
Go Vols!
This isn't the most pirating list, this is the most caught list! Seriously if you're gonna use BT, get some PG going on. Better yet, hook up the DC++ or invest in USENET subs.
My University ranks in at 11 - not bad considering we're the 9th largest in the nation. Notices served no a per-capita basis would be a much better statistic to read about.
On a side note, Ruckus tried to push their DRM scheme on my University last fall. The student-government went googly-eyed for it, so it was up to me to convince them otherwise. To communicate on their level, I wrote a short comic (http://idisk.mac.com/dharmon2/Public/drm-comic.pdf). Worked like a charm.
LEts go BOBCATS!!! woohoo! I saw this in the local paper today. Used to be the #1 party school in the nation, at least we are now #1 in music piracy!
At UCLA the punishment is a slap on the wrist and no internet for 24 hours for first infraction. Second and you get to meet the dean, with punishment from probation to expulsion.
Being the first node of the internet, we get pretty good speeds. 33mbps down 8 mpbs up (sometimes faster, depending on how many people are on the pipes).
I go to a small (unnamed for security reasons) university with about 1000 or so students that live on the main campus. Here we have established an encrypted P2P sharing network based on the dc++ protocol. We have over 1/3 of the campus registered, over 800 movies, and 20 to 30 terrabytes of data shared over the network. Thanks to the fact that it is hosted exclusively over the LAN we can reach download and upload speeds of over 12mb/s. Due to the architecture of the DC++ hub it is not accessible from outside the school network, and hence we get 0 piracy notices from the RIAA, and the school itself. It is a win win situation. I was wondering if anyone out there in the engadget crowd does a similar thing at there school?
Woot I'm 3rd! I haven't gotten a notice yet...
Standing strong at #3 in UNL. I don't feel too crushed about the decrease in sales that Dave Mathews and The Fray are experiencing, so more power to you, Pirates!
(not really, this is an embarrassment...)
ASU #24 WOOT
#4 Go Big Orange ;)
#1, wow, i only checked this list because before i graduated from Ohio U it seemed to be the only thing people did was download music/movies and drink/party...guess some things never change!
Boston University, Yeah! number 15 proud to have made the list
"so someone explain to me.. what happens to people that get caught.. do they just get a notice that says stop? like a warning... or do they have the internet taken away for a year.. do they have a fine.. what happens? one of my friends said it might happen to him. does anyone have knowledge on this topic? what happened to your friends"
At U-Dub we get the network security admins come in and give you the scare tactic followed by (I think three days) ban from internet for the first infraction. I've seen print outs of all your illegal files (on HDD) and a letter from MPAA/RIAA saying if they see your computer with stolen files again they will fine the university $25,000.
How do I know this? I ULed and DLed terabytes after terabytes of pr0n but the one time I get that dumb ass movie 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' for a friend I get caught.
Oh yeah, number 4.
Once again, proud to be a Boilermaker!
The Indianapolis Star article with Purdue's comments
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/LOCAL/702210482
I just hope Purdue hasn't gotten themselves in trouble with making public comments like that.
Boiler up! We'll take #2!
Yup, that's the SGI lab in Coover......now....how did Engadget get their hands on that? It's probably a good thing that Iowa State isn't even on this list.
Kinda of surprised that the University of Minnesota isn't on there. They are one of the largest, if not the largest (I know they have held the honor off and on) schools student body wise in the country.
Well, the dorms have an unofficial private network for all the idiots(dc++). The University isn't going to stop it because there are fewer people getting in trouble, and it saves on incoming and outgoing internet bandwidth, and network bandwidth they could almost care less about.
I'd bet Northern Michigan University has the smallest student body on the list but EVERY single student gets a thinkpad.
I find it odd that the University pictured isn't on the list. It doesn't even look like a recent picture.
What gets people caught? The Uploading (and sharing) of the files, or the Downloading?
That picture is from a summer Computer security camp in 2004. I don't recognize anyone either.
This is a badge of honor! Nice to see the two teams I like in the top 25
Go Wolfpack! Go 'Horns!
boiler up bitches
What else is there to do in the middle of Indiana? Go Boilers!
I'd love free music, personally, but Ruckus won't download and run on my Mac. Way to leave half of your audience out in the cold....
As a WKU grad I am so proud of the little school. Makes me want to get my framed diploma (you'd have framed it too after my job hunt) and put it on the wall.
Well played WKU.
#5 USC
GO GAMECOCKS!
ARRR!!
I attend Penn State at UP a member of the Big Ten like many schools on this list including number one. Bundled with our tuition is a subscription to Napster, wondering if that has been viewed as a geture of goodwill towards to RIAA. Also in regards to MIT i remember seeing that they were asked to turn over log files and they flat out refused!
Down here in Sarasota, the RIAA has hired private investigators to stalk Karaoke bars and log any unlicensed music being played. Then they are suing the bar/club owners for use of unlicensed content:
http://heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS/702220459/-1/Help0530
it times like these im glad i goto a small university. RIAA and MPAA will never bother to sue students at small schools because it wont get as many headlines as suing a BU or Harvard student.
North Carolina State University, #9. Good thing I don't care about most RIAA music enough to take it for free.
I'm absolutly dumbfounded that University of Texas @ Austin made the list - I thought it was supposed to be the LIVE music capital of the world??? Turns out cybergeeks have got them beat?
I hope labels and RIAA put a moritorium on hiring grads from the aforementioned schools - and the schools themselves lose federal funding. Perhaps Pell Grant intrest rates of offenders could jump to default rates on credit cards ~30%
I recognise that UMiami didn't make the list as, unlike the institutions that did, they have a vibrant music curriculum.
Amazing how Microsoft has turned the dumb populus into theiving addicts. Until Microsoft Fascism is stopped, and the despotist state disolved, the creative arts are not safe.
Simple explanation: You've got to sample the music to choose which shows to go to each night.
I'm absolutly dumbfounded that University of Texas @ Austin made the list - I thought it was supposed to be the LIVE music capital of the world??? Turns out cybergeeks have got them beat?
I hope labels and RIAA put a moritorium on hiring grads from the aforementioned schools - and the schools themselves lose federal funding. Perhaps Pell Grant intrest rates of offenders could jump to default rates on credit cards ~30%
I recognise that UMiami didn't make the list as, unlike the institutions that did, they have a vibrant music curriculum.
Amazing how Microsoft has turned the dumb populus into theiving addicts. Until Microsoft Fascism is stopped, and the despotist state disolved, the creative arts are not safe.
When is the RIAA going to wake up and realize that for every person they catch, there are 100 more who will continue to share music.
The RIAA needs to realize that until they can come up with a good way to offer us appealing and competitively priced legal downloads, we will continue to pirate. Why would I want to pay for an inferior DRM download that can only lets me put it on my ipod (which I don't have/want) and play on 5 only different computers? I know I'd never pay for something like that.
These kids should check out digitalfreedom.org. it has great info on piracy vs. fair use.
These kids should check out digitalfreedom.org. A good source of info on pircay vs fair use.
This just goes to show how little the RIAA has to do with their time. They should all go f### themselves cause they are part of the reason that music is fallin apart
What is the point of all this? (And THIS.) Just to anger more users? How about releasing some good music? How about supporting innovation and technology?
Hmph.
Maggie
no UM i feel cheated for all the time i spent stealing music ahem i mean borrow
digitalfreedom.org, what a joke - there isn't a single record company listed as a partner! talk about a one sided compromise... a bunch of companies wanting to get rich off the exploitation of others.
Now I'm sure some kid will simply retort that, "the record companies have been doing that for years" well, the record companies use those monies they "take" from the largest acts to support and develop the smaller acts. Perhaps your vision of the world has been corrupted by the way business was done during the Clinton years - the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer - corporate greed paramont only to giving hitler's prodege all the monies musterable.
And hey if that is your idea of a good time, continue to salute that Nazi flag waving in the lower left hand corner of your computer screen.
Go Boilers!! It's only Ohio State you gotta beat. woot
Yeah! Purdue!! LOL - not only am I an alumni, I was at Purdue working for the on-campus housing data network for a couple years - I wrote some of the first "please stop pirating thx bye" alerts we sent to students. The tracking, alerting, and limiting of bandwidth got to be an interesting game of cops and robbers.
Honestly, I think the primary concern was not so much "piracy is bad", but more that we (admins) to cut a check for each and every gig of data you move, so stop trying to move a freakin' terabyte a month.
(the uploaders were always worse than the downloaders - it was the guys that ran the anime servers that had their 10mbps port pegged out 24/7/365)
I got to Kent State, and this was a huge deal in our school's paper. It's a little funny to me that OU is #1, because we're in the same conference. We can do better than they can, but I'll have to do my part if we can to be #1!!!
#24 Go Devils! Leading the Pac-10. But seriously, 336 isn't much out of 60k+ students.
Boiler Up Bitches!
Ha #3!! GO Huskers!!!