Cheryl Elzy, dean of University Libraries at Illinois State
University, is heading back to Washington, D.C. to testify before a
Congressional committee about the University s unique program to address
issues surrounding campus downloading of copyrighted digital media.
Elzy, who spoke to a Congressional sub-committee in September 2006 about the Digital Citizens Project, has been invited back to give members of Congress an update on the University s efforts to educate students on the rules regarding peer-to-peer file sharing and to provide legal sources for downloading music, videos and games. Elzy will give testimony to the House Committee on Science and Technology in mid June.
The Congressional committee is looking to Illinois State to provide insight into how colleges and universities can use a combination of education programs, monitoring systems, and legal digital media services to address the issue of campus piracy, said Elzy. The committee wants to hear what our research is revealing because Illinois State is so far ahead of other schools when it comes to addressing the issue of media downloading. Our Digital Citizens Project is a collaborative effort between higher education and the entertainment industry to educate students about the ethical and legal implications of downloading copyrighted materials and to provide legal sources for obtaining digital media.
Elzy will give committee members details on research regarding campus user attitudes toward media downloads, research on technologies currently available to address file sharing problems, and the University s collaboration with entertainment industry groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America.
I ll emphasize to the committee members that addressing the issue of peer-to-peer file sharing requires a holistic approach that educates users on legal issues and provides easy access to legitimate sources for downloading media, said Elzy. Awareness and understanding of what can happen to online users is vitally important and must start at an early age. The Digital Citizens Project is also developing education materials for use in K-12 education.
As part of the Digital Citizens Project, network engineers are testing commercial monitoring and enforcement software that will be managed and operated by campus personnel to automatically track and block peer-to-peer file transfers via the campus network. The software is designed to stop downloading of copyrighted material and direct users to legal avenues for downloading the desired item. A variety of legal downloading services, called Bird Trax , will be offered at reduced costs covering the spectrum of portable device options. Participants will be rewarded and encouraged to use Bird Trax through a variety of incentives including free downloads, reduced subscriptions and/or an array of vendor-related giveaways.
In addition to Elzy, leaders for the Digital Citizens Project are Sue Stroyan-Bennett, project director, Mark Walbert, associate vice president of Academic Information Technology, David Greenfield, director of Student Technology Support Services, and Warren Arbogast, president of Boulder Management Group and Milner Library s technology consultant.
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