Response to a response to a post
+++ATH0: Bannination of iPods
Dan Kalowsky replied to my post on why iPod banning is nonsensical, and his reply merits discussion. He points out that one (extremely) likely repercussion of tolerating iPods at work is that illegal material may be uploaded to a corporate computer - in particular, illegal music downloads, acquired at home (since we can assume that a reasonably competent office will prevent illegal media downloading at work), may be moved to an MP3 player, and copied from there to a work computer for listening or backup purposes.
I do want to point out that the original article from p2pnet.net also fails to take this into account. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gartner group report exhibited a similar lack of insight. So the report itself is likely completely without merit.
Now, on to Dan's concern. I would love to know whether or not a company can be held liable for illegal material found on the computer of an employee. Dan assumes that they can, and I wouldn't be at all surprised, but at the same time, I just don't know. Of course, the employee may access to a server, and may move the material there - and when it's stored on a company-wide server instead of a local personal computer, the company is more likely to be liable. Also, other employees may borrow said material, which is even worse. But I still don't know.
And, for that matter, I'd rather see corporate policy preventing this sort of thing, knowing that there will be occasional violations, and maybe using a certain degree of network-file-transfer monitoring to reduce spreading. I personally kept my MP3 CD player at work for many years, listening to mostly legal music, and would not have retained the level of sanity I still possess (which admittedly is not much) were I not allowed to possess it.
Dan Kalowsky replied to my post on why iPod banning is nonsensical, and his reply merits discussion. He points out that one (extremely) likely repercussion of tolerating iPods at work is that illegal material may be uploaded to a corporate computer - in particular, illegal music downloads, acquired at home (since we can assume that a reasonably competent office will prevent illegal media downloading at work), may be moved to an MP3 player, and copied from there to a work computer for listening or backup purposes.
I do want to point out that the original article from p2pnet.net also fails to take this into account. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gartner group report exhibited a similar lack of insight. So the report itself is likely completely without merit.
Now, on to Dan's concern. I would love to know whether or not a company can be held liable for illegal material found on the computer of an employee. Dan assumes that they can, and I wouldn't be at all surprised, but at the same time, I just don't know. Of course, the employee may access to a server, and may move the material there - and when it's stored on a company-wide server instead of a local personal computer, the company is more likely to be liable. Also, other employees may borrow said material, which is even worse. But I still don't know.
And, for that matter, I'd rather see corporate policy preventing this sort of thing, knowing that there will be occasional violations, and maybe using a certain degree of network-file-transfer monitoring to reduce spreading. I personally kept my MP3 CD player at work for many years, listening to mostly legal music, and would not have retained the level of sanity I still possess (which admittedly is not much) were I not allowed to possess it.
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