Is Brooklyn Law School Informing On Its Own Students?

Apparently so. From a student at Brooklyn Law School:

Today we received this e-mail from the administration, which is causing quite an uproar among the student body.

The gist of it seems to be that, contrary to the practice of other schools, BLS will begin actively investigating [illegal] downloading and proactively providing names of people to media [companies] so [the individuals in question] can be sued.

I believe the typical practice at other schools (graduate and undergraduate) and institutions is to wait for a subpoena and either cooperate or fight the subpoena, not to go out of their way to inform on their students.

The total cost of attendance at Brooklyn Law for the 2009-2010 academic year, for full-time students not living with their parents (God forbid), is a shade over $66,000. Shouldn’t that buy BLS’s silence?
Or is the law school in the right here? Shouldn’t law students, i.e., future lawyers, know and follow the law?
UPDATE: Brooklyn Law has announced a change in this policy.
Read the email and take a poll, after the jump.


BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL — MEMORANDUM — ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING
From: Phil Allred
Date: October 28, 2009 11:49 AM EDT
To: All Users
Subject: [BLS] Illegal downloading
This semester we have received several warnings from our Internet
service provider that copyrighted movies and TV shows are being
downloaded illegally via our wireless network. The Information
Technology office is now ascertaining who is doing this. Once we have
names of the individuals involved, we intend to give them to the
copyright holders for enforcement purposes.
We remind everyone that copyright abuse is illegal and that use of the
Internet while at Brooklyn Law School must be in accordance with our
published Terms of Service document located at
http://www.brooklaw.edu/terms.
Phil Allred
CIO
Brooklyn Law School
UPDATE: Brooklyn Law has announced a change in this policy.

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