A Survey of U.S. Universities' Peer-to-Peer Policies

Headed to college this fall and wondering what the story is with peer-to-peer applications on campus? Well, a generation of freshmen ahead of you have primed the pumps, and administrations aren't staffed by fools. They know the score, at least to some degree.

But what's the "official" word on P2P at America's largest institutes of higher learning? I thought I'd take a look at the 10 biggest universities in the U.S. and find out their policies on peer-to-peer apps on campus. (In general, every university bans illegal use of any software on the network, including the sharing of copyrighted movies and music.)

Here's the rules at the 10 largest universities, by 2005 enrollment, ranked according to Wikipedia.

1. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ - Applications that "inhibit or interfere" with the network's bandwidth are not permitted, including P2P applications. Has broad language against P2P apps.
2. University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN - P2P apps are not mentioned in the acceptable use policies.
3. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH - Generally permitted aside from copyrighted materials sharing and "abuse" of bandwidth.
4. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL - No clear policy against P2P, though excessive "viewing or publishing of Web pages is not permitted."
5. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX - Permitted as long as network bandwidth is not materially impacted.
6. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - No official language about P2P apps at all.
7. University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL - Not prohibited by policy.
8. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX - Permitted, but scary warnings tell you these applications are really dangerous.
9. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL - If you can find the policy you're a better person than I am, but given that the university's site pops up ads for Kazaa when you search for "peer to peer," you have a great excuse.
10. University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI - No policy on P2P.

This information is solely based on publicly accessible data on the respective universities' websites (as linked above) and may not reflect any legal precedents established or informal rules not in writing. Specific dorms or buildings may also have their own rules. All of these rules tend to be worded vaguely, too, so even if you think you're in the clear, you're probably not. If you think a certain application might be banned on your campus, check with your school's IT support.

Overall these results are a huge surprise. I had expected virtually all colleges to outright ban P2P applications, but that's the exact opposite of the generally hands-off approach most universities seem to take toward file sharing. Maybe it's just because these are large universities have bandwidth to burn, or maybe they just don't want to get involved.

If you're in school (or a recent grad), what's the policy at your university?