<p>I've heard from many that MIT has backbone internet. It must be super fast for internet downloads. On that note, can we use say...open information sharing programs (P2P) at MIT?</p>
<p>A current student should answer this question with more knowledge, but from experience I downloaded one thing during the summer as a visitor, and got a StopIt certificate and they pretty much locked out my MAC address. I've seen people use p2p at MIT, so I'm not sure how it all works out.</p>
<p>I don't know what you're intending to download, but you'd best be careful with it - in 2005, a couple dozen or so MIT students were sued by the RIAA, and there was some evidence that the RIAA had more names and records that they were hoarding to pressure MIT to crack down on copyright violators (where "some evidence" means "a mid-level administrator told me that that's what he was told").</p>
<p>Here's a nice [url="<a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V126/N21/asksipb.html%22%5Darticle%5B/url">http://www-tech.mit.edu/V126/N21/asksipb.html"]article[/url</a>] from MIT's student computing group about downloading and copyright violations.</p>
<p>I wonder how they can tell whether we are using a legal, payment-based program versus one like KLR or Limewire.</p>
<p>I torrent TV shows but mostly I use closed/encrypted networks for file-sharing to be safe</p>
<p>MIT doesn't try to prevent you from doing anything on the Internet. There's no blocked ports or anything else to stand in your way. But that doesn't mean you're safe though. MIT is basically letting you get yourself in trouble. If the RIA/MPAA want to sue you, MIT isn't going to stop them.</p>
<p>If you do get caught and someone contacts MIT, then they <em>will</em> lock your network access until you go tell them you won't don't it again. The second time things get a bit stricter, but they'll still restore it. The third time you lose access, you're in trouble though. SIPB ran a nice article about it awhile ago, maybe someone could find it.</p>
<p>In short, do things at your own risk!</p>
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SIPB ran a nice article about it awhile ago, maybe someone could find it.
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<p>See my previous post in this thread. :)</p>