Blair's most beloved muckraker is at it again

Blair graduate Elliott Wolf, class of 2004, was recently written up in The Chronicle, a student newspaper out of Duke University, for challenging the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) warning against people who download television shows after the episodes have been aired.

Last academic year, Wolf presided over the Blair American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) club and completed a senior research project with the ACLU that statistically proved that Maryland police were using racial profiling. He also prompted the Blair administration to revise the Pledge of Allegiance policy so that students do not have to stand for the pledge. Now, he is crusading against the MPAA and its legal battles against people who download television shows.

Wolf believes these suits are not legally justified. "The big thing is that the MPAA's going around saying it's on solid legal ground, and it just outright isn't," he said in an AOL Instant Messenger conversation.

Although Wolf feels within his rights in downloading these shows, he agreed to stop using BitTorrent, the file sharing program he employed, to protect Duke University, which owns his IP address. "I stopped using BitTorrent but have since then been conducting limited research on the legality of what I was doing and on the merit of the MPAA's claims," Wolf wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle.

On Nov. 30, The Chronicle reported that Wolf, a freshman, had received two e-mails regarding his downloading habits. The e-mails prompted him to "challenge" the MPAA using the Supreme Court ruling of 1984 in Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios, Inc.

This ruling determined that recording television shows using VCRs is legal. Wolf wrote in an e-mail that the ruling stated, "When one considers the nature of a televised copyrighted audiovisual work, see 17 U.S.C. 107(2) (1982 ed.), and that time-shifting merely enables a viewer to see such a work which he had been invited to witness in its entirety free of charge, the fact [464 U.S. 417, 450] that the entire work is reproduced, see 107(3), does not have its ordinary effect of militating against a finding of fair use."

Wolf says this ruling supports his position. "Time-shifting constitutes storing a copyrighted by televised broadcast for later viewing. ...[D]ownloading and distributing an already-aired episode is merely engaging in, or assisting others in engaging in, the act of 'time-shifting' the viewing of copyrighted work and is considered to be legal under US Common Law and the fair use provisions of US copyright law," he wrote in an e-mail to the Digital Millennium Copyright Agent at Duke.

The MPAA maintains that it is acting in the interest of protecting the authors of these programs and enforcing copyright law. "The unauthorized distribution or public performance or copyrighted motion pictures constitutes copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, Title 17 United States Code Section 106(3)-(4). This conduct may also violate the laws of other countries, international law, and/or treaty obligations," stated in an e-mail from the MPAA to Dr. Christopher Cramer, the University Information Technology Security Officer at Duke.

Duke owns all of the IP addresses associated with the university and does not release any information about the users except under subpoena, so there is no way at present for the MPAA to identify Wolf as a particular offender.

This is Wolf's first taste of fame at Duke, and the incident has attracted attention from other schools. He explained, "The story got picked up on the university wire, so it was printed at a bunch of other schools. I got a bunch of calls from Cornell [University], and they were like, 'Duuuude, you were in our paper.'"

Next semester, Wolf will begin writing a column for The Chronicle in which he says he will explore unsavory practices of rich alums. "Duke is a private school, and so it's really a lot different from anything like Blair. Money flows in from a bunch of rich people, and their kids get in when they really shouldn't," he said.

He says the issue goes beyond legacy admissions. He gave an example in which an alum gets a building in his name without having to pay for it in full. "Some alum was really into art, so he wants to fund an art museum and convinces his buddies on the board of trustees to pay for like, three-quarters of the cost of the building while he pays the rest."

Still, Wolf said he may pull his punches. "Considering I'm here on an endowed scholarship, [alum bashing] is a little risky," he admitted.