Sagehen Server Shut Down by ITS
By Jay Antenen
Staff Writer

Pomona’s Information Technology Services shut down the Sagehen Server on October 9, after complaints from the Scripps Information Technology department.

A message on the site’s homepage (http://sagehen.dyndns.org) said, “So, Sagehen Server is no longer here and will probably not be back. ITS disconnected the site and claims the site violates the acceptable use policy.”

The website had allowed students to search computers on the five Claremont Colleges for over 4.5 terabytes of music, movies, essays, programs and images. None of the content was stored on the server but the website offered a link to the content on the provider’s computer.

In fact, ITS Director Ken Pflueger said the site was not closed due to violations to the Appropriate Use of Campus Computing and Network Resources policy. The problem with the server, he explained, was that it scanned any computers with file sharing turned on, even if the computer’s owner did not want their computer scanned.

“Many people are not fully aware of the implications of turning on file sharing,” Pflueger said. One student made his or her Microsoft Money account available; others had diaries and personal pictures on display.

The Sagehen Server also made students vulnerable to lawsuits from the Motion Picture Association of America, since it listed the IP addresses of computers sharing movies. An IP address is a unique identifier for each computer on a network. It can be used to track down the location and owner of a computer.

A federal judge ruled last April that the creators of peer-to-peer file sharing software cannot be held accountable for the actions of their users. Since then, The Recording Industry Association of America has used IP addresses to track down and sue chronic file sharers across the nation.

Other college campus websites similar to the Sagehen server were sued by the RIAA last spring. Students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Princeton University and Michigan Technological University settled with the RIAA for thousands of dollars out of court, and agreed to shut down their websites. The judge never ruled on the legality of the sites.

Matt Oppenheim, vice president of business and legal affairs at the RIAA, told Wired News, "[The suits] are intended to send a message to other students who are engaging in this type of behavior. There will be no one free pass. Stealing is stealing, and people shouldn't do it in the first instance."

The operator of the Sagehen Server, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was never worried about a lawsuit because only computers on the Claremont network could access the site.

He said he created the site his freshman year to simplify finding files on Pomona’s network. At first only his friends knew of the site, and then, its notoriety grew through word of mouth. This year, however, he said some people began advertising the site by placing post-it notes around campus.

One Chemistry professor encouraged his students to share files on the Sagehen Server by providing a link from his personal Pomona web site. Other students linked to the website from their personal blogs.

Soon the Sagehen Server became too popular, and students began calling the computer help desks at Pomona, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna with questions.

The operator of the Sagehen Server said now that his site is shut down students will be pushed to use Kazaa leading to a strain on Pomona’s Internet connection and increasing the risk of viruses. “I think ITS tolerated the server for a while because it kept the use of Kazaa down and provided less of a strain to the network,” he said.

Pflueger said he purposely does not make himself aware of file sharing on campus.

“Monitoring content is not our business at ITS,” Pflueger said. “We have to preserve academic freedom.”

Legal alternatives to file sharing do exist. Apple Computer Inc. launched a Windows version of its iTunes Music Store on Thursday, and a reincarnation of Napster will return on October 29 from Roxio Inc. Both services charge 99 cents a song or 9.95 an album, and offer around 500,000 songs. However, it remains to be seen if students at Pomona will shift to downloading legally-purchased music.

Frequent Sagehen Server Gabe Klapman ’06, said he has not used Kazaa since the Sagehen Server was shut down; but, he said, he does but did occasionally browse for files on the Pomona network using Windows XP’s network browser program. “I wouldn’t pay a fee per song,” Klapman said. “But I would pay twenty dollars a year to use the Sagehen legally.”

The operator of the Sagehen Server does not seem too upset about its closure.

“ITS was very cooperative about the whole thing,” he said. “They never sought disciplinary action.”