Texas State student Joe Jackson at computer

Texas State student, Joe Jackson, uses a BitTorrent, legally.

Are Texas State Students at risk of being Sued?

By Haley Fontenot
September 20, 2007

Many of us have heard of BitTorrents and the controversy that comes along in any conversation about them. But do we really know what they are and how they work? Or, for that matter, who is being threatened with lawsuits for using them.

I set out to learn whether, on top of dealing with exams, graduation, and student loans, the average 20-something Texas State student is at risk of being slapped with a lawsuit for using a BitTorrent.

BitTorrents are strange new creatures to those of us who became old friends with Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire. So, there needs to be a little explanation of a Bit Torrent before we can determine if Texas State students are likely to get in trouble for using them. I first turned to the online source with questionable accuracy but mounds and mounds of information, Wikipedia.org.

Wikipedia’s entry for BitTorrent reads: “BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources.”

I wanted a more in depth and easier to understand explanation. For that I turned to my trusty neighbor nerd friend, Joe Jackson, who came over immediately when enticed with a few (dozen) chocolate chip cookies and some Miller Highlife.

“One guy has the whole file; He’s the ‘Seeder.’ Several people download a small portion of the file then share each part with each other and the process keeps spider webbing out from there,” said 26-year-old Texas State business major, Joe Jackson.

In comparison to something like Napster in which a whole piece of content, like a song, would be shared with a single original source; a BitTorrent uses a “tracker” to find small parts of the content from several different sources, which are now called “seeders.” The computer downloading the content from the seeder is now called the “leecher.”

Armed with my new understanding of what a BitTorrent is and how one works, I was ready to try and find out who is at risk of being sued.

According to Wikipedia entry for BitTorrent producers of copyrighted material, such as HBO, will send cease and desist letters to Internet Service Providers of BitTorrent users. The ISPs the send letters threatening to cut off internet service to the BitTorrent users.

This sounds a little harmless; a slap on the wrist and don’t do it again, you’ll be fine. I wasn’t satisfied, so I asked Joe Jackson (who is always referred to with first and last name) what he’s heard on the Internet about lawsuits.

Joe Jackson said the ISPs send out cease and desist letters to the BitTorrent users. If the users decide to ignore these letters it is possible that the ISP will bring them to civil court. If the user suddenly becomes repentant and will change their ways, the ISPs might settle for a fine of $1000 paid from the user.

That sounded more like reality to me. So, although it is not legal to steal copyrighted material, Texas State students will most likely not be taken to court if they comply with the ISPs wishes.

Because of the number of BitTorrent users it’s difficult for the ISPs to send these letters to every single person. People who are targeted are usually the original seeder, especially if that person seeds (the verb) content that has not yet been released, like the Kanye West CD that some how seeded a few weeks before the album dropped.

“I think people that seed things that haven’t been released yet are inside the operation, and somehow get their hands on it before the release date,” said Joe Jackson.

So, is this BitTorrent really affecting Texas State students? Yes, aside the fact that it is possible that someone can receive a cease and desist letter, Texas State has made it impossible to use any BitTorrent, whether legal or not, in the dorms and everywhere else on campus.

“There are some things that are free and open source and ok to download, like Linux. This rule just assumes that we’re going to break the law. That’s like saying I won’t sell a car to any Texas State students that drive over 65. I might have to drive over 65 sometime,” said Joe Jackson.