Although some schools are beginning to limit the bandwidth their students can use to download movies and music on the Internet, Boston University computer science professor Mark Crovella does not see the need to restrict student downloading any time soon.
Pennsylvania State University recently decided to implement a limit to on-campus students downloading information on the university’s Internet bandwidth.
Crovella said as far as he knows, the usage of bandwidth has not been a problem for BU; however, he does know of devices that could limit the amount of traffic. These devices may be able to target traffic as a whole, but according to Crovella, “it seems unlikely that they could target individuals.”
Crovella said he sees BU using the devices as more of a threat than an actual limitation device, saying they could be defeated if a student had a desire to do so.
About 1.6 percent of PSU’s 15,000 registered computer owners, 247 students, are currently using up 46 percent of the collective Internet bandwidth, according to The Daily Collegian. The school began monitoring students’ uploads last semester and have now decided to limit each student to 1.5 gigabytes of data per week.
BU College of Engineering freshman Tom Tanury estimated students at BU would still be able to download approximately two movies a week if a similar system went into effect. BU has not currently decided the limit of students’ downloading capabilities.
“Students would still be able to download DivX movies,” Tanury said. “DivX [movies] are often close to DVD [movie] quality but are less than 700 megabytes in size, so students could download two a week, and still have some room to also download songs and [Microsoft] Word documents.”
Tanury said if BU instituted a downloading limit, it would not bother him.
“I would personally not complain because I don’t hit that limit a week, but I don’t like being censored,” he said. “We are paying a lot to go to this school, and that includes bandwidth.”
College of the Arts and Sciences sophomore Aaron Weinberg said he would agree with the BU administration if it chose to execute such limitations.
“The bandwidth is here for educational purposes, and if students are slowing down the online Internet activity, then the University has the right to limit the number of downloads students make,” Weinberg said.
However, Weinberg said he also feels the administration should try to come to a compromise with students if bandwidth use becomes an issue.
CAS freshman Courtney DeWolf said it wouldn’t be fair for the school to limit student downloading.
“It restricts the students’ freedom on their own property,” DeWolf said. “If it is the student’s personal computer, the school does not have a right to tell them how much they can download, or to slow down their connection; however, if it is a school computer, the University has every right to limit the amount of downloads.”
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