Due the school it self not including Internet access for dorm residents as part of their tuition, students must sign up for Time Warner cable if they wish to have Internet access in their dorm room. Students also must make monthly payments as a result so many students simply purchase a wireless router and allow neighboring residents access to it if they help pay the bill. Recent events have occurred dealing with the legality of sharing internet access.
Acadia Hall residents Chris Punches and Josh Whitney were providing Internet right from their dorm room. Whitney also made the effort to put up small ads throughout the dorm to let students know there was Internet available at an affordable cost to them. They even made sure users of their network were safe by setting up a network monitor to make sure their users were not illegally downloading, keeping all users out of risk on the Internet.
Word spread quickly, and this ultimately led to a campus security officer informing them that the service they were providing was illegal and the guard used those grounds to enter their dorm room.
Punches first contacted Time Warner and he was informed there was nothing wrong with his contract and they had no problem with the service being resold. There is also no certainty as to how it conflicts with the school’s resources when there is no Internet provided in Acadia Hall.
“This was not just a capital venture” says Punches “we even gave two students free access simply for the sake of improving conditions in Acadia Hall.” Punches also claims that himself and Whitney actually lost money not due to the low cost to their users overall.
Punches is no longer providing Internet to dorm residents, this in term has caused these residents to purchase their own internet and, like Punches, provide it to other students. The main difference is these student’s networks are not as secure and there is no monitoring of illegal activities, allowing students to download content and risk personal lawsuit.
“The Internet is a high priority for the modern student and access to it wasn’t provided beyond the computer labs and we all know how problematic those labs are. These kids need internet.” Says Punches
Tim Conway from the EMCC IT Department stated that reselling Internet service in the dorm for profit may be in violation of the student’s contract with Time Warner. He also stated that there are no plans as of right now to have Internet provided by the school in Acadia Hall.