Here is an e-mail the student body recently received from our technology department:

CMC Students,

Information Systems and Network Services recently gained information from the RTA’s/LTA’s that CMCNet has been less than stable. I would like to offer an explanation.

First and foremost, certain users are monopolizing the address availability on the wireless network. This leads to "limited or no connectivity" as described by many
affected students. Our staff manually cleared close to 100 addresses this morning, so things are working properly at this point.

The next thing (and most important to keep in mind) are users that aggressively use "Peer-2-Peer" programs through the wireless network. The wireless network was not built as a piracy hub, but rather an academic tool. Performing these operations makes the central server less responsive for ALL who are connected. One user alone transferred over 19.6GB of bidirectional P2P data on the CMCNet wireless network yesterday.

With much resistance at first, I have now succumbled fully to the ipod revolution. I was really put off my the advertisements at first. in the Bay Area, at some BART (Subway-like public transportation) stations, the platforms would be covered with IPOD ads. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing those Even though there are definite faults (it's expensive, the battery-life is ridiculously not what they advertise, etc.), I love my ipod. it's just crazy to have so much of my music available at once. I used to carry my discman everywhere with me, and would have a cd case that could hold 10 CDs. I'd carefully pick my selections before going out, etc. so having it all easibly accessible in this tiny little thing was awesome. I even have ipod accessories, such as portable speakers. my ipod allegiance is pretty pricey though for me it's been worth it.

with all the stuff we've been reading about piracy, downloads, p2p, this made me start thinking about my own music consumption habits. when I was younger, i was obsessed with collecting cds, for any birthday or christmas present I would ask people for CDs. Though I downloaded music, and would burn CDs from my friends or from the local public library (surprisingly good collection), I still ended up spending lots of money on buying CDs. I guess it was because when I was burning from others, that limited who I could listen to to artists other people had (Whom may not be the ones I'm interested in). With downloading, it was easiest to download who was the most popular. More obscure bands were difficult to find. Also, it may have been easy to download a few songs, but it was harder to find complete album using different P2P software. possible, but it took work. I also had some sort of code of ethics in what I would download or burn. For example, there were certain artists who I absolutely had to buy their album and not just have a burned copy. Movie soundtracks and other compilations I burned with no hesitance, because since they weren't albums and put together cohesively for artistic purposes