IU won't ban Scour program if students help

IU's high-speed connection to the Internet is at full capacity again because of programs like Scour, a software tool used to download multimedia files, University officials said.\nUnlike the University's unpopular ban of Napster last year, University Information Technology Services hopes to allow students to continue to access Scour -- under certain conditions.\nThe problem is too much traffic on IU's network.\n"Outbound traffic from the University to the Internet is completely consuming the outbound-capacity...," said Terry Usrey, UITS director of telecommunications data and video. Scour accounts for half of that outbound traffic, Usrey said.\nThe only way the University can keep from banning Scour as well as Napster is with help from students.\nUITS is requesting that students not use Scour or any other program that makes their computer into a server, or at least not share their files with the Scour community.\nIf they do use such a program, students should limits use to very late evening and very early morning hours, UITS said. Third, students should close the program completely. \nThe problem of an overcrowded Internet connection is not a new one at IU.\nNapster was blocked last year because its use was consuming 53 percent of the IU connection and a lawsuit was filed against the University by the band Metallica.\nControversy ensued as students complained that no compromise was offered to them.\n"In retrospect, that wasn't the best move," Usrey said. "It wasn't an irresponsible move, but maybe not the best move."\nIn February, Bruhn said action would be taken against any Web site that takes up that much space.\n"Even with the upgrades to the network, the use of Scour by Residence Halls students is now consuming nearly as much as Napster was when it was blocked last Spring," Mark Bruhn, IU information technology policy officer, said.\nBut with Scour, UITS is taking a different approach.\nThat's why the first of many options being pursued by UITS is to ask for the cooperation of students.\nSenior Wayne Phaup, president of Computer Information Systems Club agrees with the approach.\n"It makes much more sense to give a trial period, so if they must shut it down, at least it's justified," Phaup said.\nUsrey said, "If everyone does as we ask them to do, we can solve the problem."\nUITS plans to get the word out through the Residence Halls Association. Individual e-mail messages will be sent and posters will be put up in residence halls.\n"If (UITS) can explain the issue to the students and the downside of using it during peak times and sharing files, students would try to limit their use," Phaup said. "Students probably aren't fully aware that it's tying up the network."\nThere are several reasons why UITS doesn't wish to block Scour.\n"Blocking or technically limiting applications is difficult, takes staff time to implement and manage, slows down the remaining network traffic and just isn't keeping with our academic culture," Bruhn said. "We don't want to block Scour for all of those reasons."\nConsumption of Internet connection by file-sharing programs is especially prevalent on college campuses, because of high-speed connections.\n"It's not obvious with these programs that you're serving out to the Internet," said Usrey. But, he said, that's the way the programs are designed.\nPending legal issues concerning Scour do not come into play in this matter, Usrey said.\n"We have a technical problem of resource utilization," he said. "UITS is not directly addressing legal issues at this point."\nUITS has a method of monitoring campus Internet usage.\n"We monitor use of the Internet," Usrey said. "We don't watch content. We watch capacity utilization."\nThe top 100 users, with respect to connection volume, will be sent e-mail requests to limit their usage of resources. On the third warning, which Usrey said rarely occurs, the dean of students is contacted.