If he owns the copyright to the music, then it seems it would be perfectly legit for him to upload it and track who downloads it. No backdoor necessary.
 
It he does not own the copyright, then it would seem to be a breach of the rules to make it publicly available, and I would not like to have to get the project through the ethics process at my institution.
 
Cheers,
Marj
 
 
 
Dr Marjorie Kibby, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture
The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
Marj.Kibby@newcastle.edu.au
+61 2 49216604

>>> holly-kruse@utulsa.edu 09/04/03 07:46am >>>
I'm the advisor for an undergraduate student who, as his senior
project, is going to record a CD with his band.  But beyond
that, to make it senior project-worthy, he wants to infiltrate
a peer-to-peer network through a backdoor with MP3s of the
music and track how much it gets downloaded.

He is very excited about this, and I'm excited that he's
excited, but I also don't want to be presiding over a
senior project that creates ethical problems, especially
at the institutional level.  Any thoughts on this: whether
this project seems totally kosher, whether it should be
re-tooled and how, etc.?

TIA,

Holly


-----
Holly Kruse
Faculty of Communication
University of Tulsa
600 S. College Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74104
918-631-3845
holly-kruse@utulsa.edu

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