Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mcnc!rti!tijc02!djm408 From: djm408@tijc02.UUCP (David Marks ) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Software Protection Message-ID: <196@tijc02.UUCP> Date: 2 Feb 88 19:14:20 GMT References: <1141@sjuvax.UUCP> Organization: Texas Instr., Johnson City TN Lines: 77 in article <1141@sjuvax.UUCP>, lyle@sjuvax.UUCP says: > > > I am writing this message to get an idea of how other > schools handle the following situation. > > A few days ago I was working in one of the campus Personal > Computing Labs when I noticed a student making a stack of disk > copies. [ describes attempt to tell student to stop ] > > The only thing I could make the person do is stop copying the > disk. Now my questions: > > Has anyone else ever encountered this situation? Is so, what > kind of measures were taken to correct the situation? In this > case it was outside software, but what if they are copying the > universities software? What do you do with teachers who promote > the software pirateing. > > Wayne J. Lyle St. Joseph's University > Academic Computing Philadelphia, Pa 19131 > {allegra | astrovax | bpa}!sjuvax!lyle When I was one of the managers of the CS dept.'s Leazar Computing Facility at NC Sate in 1985-86, we were forever plagued with this problem. I told all my operators that under no circumstances could a student use the facilities' equipment to copy copyright software without written consent of the copyright owner. Many times I had to stop students from copying software. I took the position that a student bringing a pirate copy to use at the computing facility was ok, because I could not determine whether the copy was "ok" or not. However, he could not make copies at the center without written consent of the copyright owner. We had lots of students with their own pirate copies of WORDSTAR. It is difficult to "police" a computing facility that is open 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. I worked hard to establish a mutually cooperative relationship with all the CS dept. faculty so that I could ask them such things as not to promote the copying of copyright software (especially NC Sate software) without the consent of the department chairman. You will find that some faculty members tend to think of themselves as above rules and regulations that even hint of impeding their or their student's work. These can only be dealt with through the university administration, such as their department head. I suggest that all students that wish to use a computing facility be issued some sort of id (or for a mainframe center, a login id) for which they have to sign some sort of paper specifying in detail what they may or may not do at the center with copyright software, and what the consequences of violating the school's policy would be (such as withholding of grades, expulsion, or prosecution). Where I was, a login id would have sufficed, as they could not access our Data General MV8000 without it. At a micro computer lab, a paper id may be necessary to gain admissions to the center. Another possibility is to have students sign such a paper as described above when registering for courses. You cannot possibly catch every case of software piracy at a school facility, but with a written policy known by all students and faculty, you can make some headway. Only those students and faculty who regularly ignore school policies would then be a problem. The key is that the policy be visible and always enforced evenly, fairly and regularly. Prominent signs on the facilities' walls can help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include LIFE IS NOT A MALFUNCTION! David J. Marks Texas Instruments Ms 3520 Erwin Highway/P. O. Drawer 1255 Johnson City, TN. 37605 mcnc!rti!tijc02!djm408