Editor,
As some students may have figured out, Facebook.com, a commonly used social Web site, has been acting rather flaky as of late to those living in the dorms on the University-provided Internet. About a week ago, I was having trouble connecting to the site - figuring it was server issues on their side, I figured I would try later. Now, a week later, the site is still down, so I thought I would inquire to CIRT.
CIRT's reponse was that UNM has decided to disassociate itself with this non-UNM site due to copyright or trademark infringements. What are these infringements?
Unlike other social network sites, Facebook is very basic, limiting each user's profile to one picture and the rest consisting of text. Common interest groups also have the same limitations, in which the group often has the logo for its particular interest. Now these images are not being reproduced for profit or slander, but are just to attract people that share a common feeling toward something, so the justification of copyright infringement feels thin to me. If copyright infringement were an issue to UNM, there are many other sites to police.
"The site was also causing spamming problems on the network and so UNM as a whole gave the 'go-ahead' to block it," CIRT said in the e-mail. To parallel my other point, if UNM were interested in sites that consume a great deal of bandwidth, there are many other sites to police. Facebook is limited in terms of how much bandwidth it takes to load.
Even someone who uses a dialup connection can load Facebook's home page and any profile in less than 20 seconds - and less than two seconds on the connection provided by the University. Compared to the average load time of a MySpace.com profile, Facebook's load time is negligible. Again, the reason provided by CIRT holds little water.
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I would estimate more than 1,000 students use Facebook.com, but not all are confined to dorms - so the bandwidth consumed by Facebook users cannot be so great as to warrant blocking the site to all University residents. There are far more sites that consume more bandwidth and are more consistently viewed by students than Facebook.com.
There must have been more of a reason to block Facebook.com, and I would like to hear it. I think CIRT needs to clarify its reason for blocking the site, because their twofold reason seems more like a cop-out than an explanation.
Alexander Roessner
UNM student
