The Daily Mississippian noted in an editorial – and notably beat us to the punch – Tuesday, the administrators of Mississippi State University neglected student needs and defied their trust when it revealed the personal information of 14 MSU students to the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA detected illegal file sharing from several computers utilizing MSU’s network. The trade group then subpoenaed the university for the personal information of the presumed downloaders. The administrators of MSU complied, seemingly without debate.
This action taken by the university is a violation of an understanding between the school and students. Students – or their caretakers – pay thousands of dollars to MSU for not only education. The university’s environment should be safe and accepting of differences, and students should not have to worry about information that they have provided to the school falling before the eyes of others.
On a different level, the administrators of MSU have done something adverse to basic American principles. Presumed innocence, proven guilt, reasonable doubt, privacy. We may assume an American institution would abide by these legal and ethical considerations, but the institution in question absolutely did not.
Judge, jury and executioner were the roles the university and the RIAA played. The only information the RIAA had at first was IP addresses from MSU illegally sharing music files. After the subpoenas, it was up to MSU to point fingers at specific students. The university basically said, “Here are the perpetrators.”
But where is the fair judgment? IP addresses aren’t attached to specific people. They’re attached to computers that can be used by multiple people. Whether the university believes these 14 specific students broke the law is irrelevant. In court (and, one would think, in the realm of an educated mind), it would be easy to raise reasonable doubt as to whether these specific people shared illegal files.
For example, if you receive notice from the RIAA that illegal files have been shared on your computer yet you have never downloaded anything, the intelligent conclusion is another person using your computer did the crime.
Where is the loyalty of the university? Because the students are, as The Daily Mississippian put it, the “soul of a college campus,” it would only make sense for the university to defend them. The average Mississippian college student likely cannot afford an attorney and doesn’t know the law. The university’s administrators have an ethical obligation to help the students, those young adults whose resources and very presence empower these leaders.
We would also like to address the involvement of associate dean of students Thomas Bourgeois in this case. From what the staff of The Reflector has observed, he is a helpful administrator who has stood up for students in the past. We don’t believe the blame should be placed solely on him, as this action against students entails a more complex decision.
MSU can’t take back those names and information it released to the RIAA, a dying, bullying entity struggling to stay relevant. As such, we think the university has a moral obligation to raise awareness about illegal file sharing on campus before students even enroll. Perhaps this can be done through a formal contract with each student at Orientation. E-mails and updates on the MSU Web site aren’t enough. The least the university can do is to proclaim its willingness to give up the personal information of students through dubious judgments.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Matt Watson, news editor Erin Kourkounis, sports editor Melissa Meador, entertainment editor David Breland, photo editor Bud Sorey, online editor C.J. LeMaster, managing editor Nathan Gregory and editor in chief Tyler Stewart.