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Hi Greg,<br>
<br>
I asked our district's network admin about this, and he gave some
useful information. Like Multnomah, we have the boilerplate
agreement to which wired and wireless users alike must agree before
proceeding (i.e. don't use our computers for illegal stuff). On our
wired computers, we've "hidden" access to the bittorrent client,
although it does launch if a patron opens a torrent file via the
browser.<br>
<br>
Our main technique for controlling it, though, is that we throttle
incoming and outgoing connections from popular bittorrent and other
P2P ports, so they don't draw a lot of overall bandwidth. We use an
open source firewall program called pfSense (
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<a href="http://www.pfsense.com/">http://www.pfsense.com/</a>).<br>
<br>
Caveat: all of our public computers, most of our servers, and many
of our staff stations run some flavor of Linux, so your mileage may
vary with these solutions.<br>
<br>
Cheers!<br>
Buzzy<br>
<br>
******************************<br>
Assistant Library Director<br>
North Bend Public Library<br>
1800 Sherman Ave.<br>
North Bend, OR 97459<br>
541-756-0400<br>
<a href="http://www.cooslibraries.org/">http://www.cooslibraries.org</a><br>
<br>
<br>
On 06/28/2010 04:19 PM, GIBBON Cindy wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:DC0A5AF94EEB48468BF8C6674042387E021ED7F9@EXCH3.co.multnomah.or.us"
type="cite">
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<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Greg, we aren't blocking bit
torrent downloading, but we might consider it if we could
figure out a good way to do it. Aside from all else, it
takes an awful lot of our wireless bandwidth and leaves
other users sometimes unable to do what they need to do.
However, our legal counsel did suggest we add this statement
to our Acceptable User of the Interent rules and our
click-thru agreement that all patrons must agree to at
log-in. Our understanding is that from a legal
standpoint, we do not need to be concerned about
library/county liability in these situations. I think the
principle is similar to the warnings that we post a copy
machines. This statement comes out of a manual on copyright
issues for libraries which is sitting in my office (and I'm
not) so I can't dredge up the title right now. Anyway, here
are the words we adapted:</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"></span> </div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010">
<h3>Notice: Warning of Copyright Restrictions </h3>
<p>As a patron, your ability to post or link to copyrighted
material is governed by United States copyright law. The
library reserves the right to delete or disable any post or
link that, in the judgment of library staff, violates
copyright law. In accordance with 17 USC S 512 (i)(1)(A),
the library may terminate a patron’s access to the system or
network for disrespect of the intellectual property rights
of others, or for repeat infringements of copyright. The
library has adopted this policy and will make all reasonable
effort to enforce it in appropriate circumstances.</p>
</span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">If your legal counsel wants to
talk to ours, let me know.</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"></span> </div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Cindy</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"></span> </div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Cindy Gibbon</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Senior Library Manager for </font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Access and IT Services</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"><font size="2"
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Multnomah County Library</font></span></div>
<div><span class="433171123-28062010"></span> </div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div class="OutlookMessageHeader" dir="ltr" align="left"
lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Tahoma">-----Original
Message-----<br>
<b>From:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:libs-or-bounces@listsmart.osl.state.or.us">libs-or-bounces@listsmart.osl.state.or.us</a>
[<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:libs-or-bounces@listsmart.osl.state.or.us">mailto:libs-or-bounces@listsmart.osl.state.or.us</a>] <b>On
Behalf Of </b>Martin, Greg<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, June 28, 2010 3:04 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> '<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:libs-or@listsmart.osl.state.or.us">libs-or@listsmart.osl.state.or.us</a>'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Libs-Or] Bittorrent downloading in
libraries--Any solutions?<br>
<br>
</font></div>
<div class="Section1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Hi All,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I’d like to
throw out a couple of questions about bittorrent
downloading in Oregon’s libraries. Our own library’s
free and open wireless access sometimes plays host to
nefarious copyright scofflaws who download copyrighted
files, leading to threatening legal notices being
received by our fair city, as the owner of the IP range.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Question
#1: Does anyone know what, if any, legal penalties face
the library (or the city) for this activity? I’ve
understood it to be something of a gray area in the
recent past. Has that changed?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Question
#2: Are there any technological fixes that can be
instituted to stop or sabotage our moustache-twisting
villains? We have our wireless router broadcasting only
when the library is open. Additionally we have our
wireless upload rate choked off, but I’ve been told that
the servers can’t distinguish between bittorrent
downloading and ‘regular’ downloading, meaning that
there is no effective means to limit bittorrent
downloads without negatively affecting our system as a
whole. True? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Further,
I’m given to understand that although Multnomah County
(public) has a click-through agreement prohibiting
illegal activity, bittorrent downloading still works
just fine there. I’d suppose if anyone would have a
technical solution in place, they would.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Any answers
much appreciated. Please copy the list, if possible.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Cheers,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Greg Martin<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
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