DukePie to provide file-sharing service

Duke Student Government approved funding for a peer-to-peer file-sharing service at its meeting Wednesday night.

Vice President for Student Affairs Gurdane Bhutani, a sophomore, said the service—called DukePie—will be a way for students and faculty to share files without consuming an excessive amount of the University’s bandwidth. DukePie, which was originally proposed at last week’s meeting, was granted $2,265 from the legislative discretionary fund.

The decision passed by a 20-10 vote, though not without controversy. Many senators questioned the service’s legality, emphasizing that DSG should not approve a service that could be used to share music or movie files illegally instead of academic files.

“It is kind of big deal for DSG to be endorsing something that will be principally used not to share Microsoft Word [documents] and material from class, but music and movies,” said senior Ben Bergmann, an athletics and campus services senator. “Students will be using this to go around the law, with potential legal penalties.”

Bergmann added that DSG should get the administration’s explicit approval before implementing the service.

Bhutani said he had met with a lawyer regarding DukePie’s legality who expressed no objections to the service. Bhutani added that he is planning to meet with Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta later in the week.

“I sort of reject the notion that we have to get the permission from a grown-up to do something,” Bhutani said. “Whenever we approve [allocating] money, we’re always taking a risk. There’s a chance that it will be a total dud.”

He added that the University of Connecticut and Cornell University host services similar to DukePie.

The Senate voted unanimously put a referendum on the Young Trustee ballot to merge Campus Council with DSG. The Young Trustee election is Feb. 15.

DSG also unanimously approved a resolution supporting pro-democracy protesters in Egypt.