The following are a couple of updates from the Information Technology Department on changes being made to the residential network at Nichols College:
We have increased the internet bandwidth for each student's internet connection. Up until now, students have had a connection speed to the internet of 1 megabit per second (1mbps) download (and 256kbps upload). That speed has now been increased to 5mbps download (and 512kbps upload).
We will now be blocking student access to a list of applications that are mainly used for the purpose of illegal sharing of copyrighted materials, such as music and videos. As you may already know, electronic copyrighted materials are protected by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). In addition to this, Congress recently passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act. This act requires, among other things, institutions to make a "good faith effort" to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials.
For more information on legal downloading, please go to, www.campusdownloading.com. This site also has a list of sites that can be used for legal downloading of music.
The list of applications that will now be blocked on the student network at Nichols College include the following:
This list may be updated from time-to-time as other known illegal file sharing sites are identified, or as illegal sites convert their use to a legal model for downloads.
Please also note that there are other well-known file sharing sites that have had a history of illegal activities which are not in the above list. These sites are in the process of converting to a legal business model. However, in the event that these "transitional" sites are identified in network activity as being used for illegal file sharing, it is possible that these could be added to the list of blocked sites in the future.
If you have any questions regarding the legality of specific downloads, please feel free to contact the I.T. Help Desk, at helpdesk@nichols.edu, or at extension 2206.