Stanford University Allows Students to Use BitTorrent for File Sharing
Some universities didn’t rush into dismissing file sharing as a bad, bad thing, as a result of the huge wave of lawsuits filed by the RIAA and the MPAA – instead they considered a useful aspect of file sharing, as for instance Stanford University which is now using BitTorrent as a way of distributing course materials from 10 of its most popular electrical engineering and computer science courses.
The course materials are available online at the Stanford Engineering Everywhere web site as well. Additionally, those interested can discuss each course using online study groups via Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking web sites.
The addition of BitTorrent alongside the existing ways of distributing materials and collaborating (including through YouTube videos) was dictated by the possibility to download those materials, the recorded lectures, handouts, homework and exams in one file.
Allegedly, over 200,000 people worldwide have visited the web site to have a look at or download the course materials.
Those who want to download the material via BitTorrent must do so using a Vuze DHT-supported tracker. For the time being, you can’t use Transmission, BitTornado and BitLord but you’re allowed to use Azureus and uTorrent.
Still, this doesn’t mean you can cross the border – download and share copyrighted content and you’ll be fined $100 for a first offense, $500 the second time you infringe the copyright law and $1,000 a third offense to get Internet reconnected.
