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Downloading Issue Case Study: Website Restriction of De La Salle University

Restricting access to illegal download is does not affect learning. Allowing the school to access illegal download page encourages students to illegally download materials. The school have alternatives to prevent illegal download. In the case of De La Salle University, the university partnered with Microsoft Software Developers Alliance to provide free Microsoft products. This program does not only reduce illegal downloads, but also enhance the productivity of students by having free softwares. Access to illegal materials for download is not really an issue.

The issue probably that our professor may want to address is the restriction of access to websites that may be an asset to the student's learning. Such as the case of De La Salle University, wherein YouTube was blocked in the University's network. The argument about allowing access to YouTube is that it can provide useful information for learning. Such videos may include videos about history, news and technological breakthroughs. Allowing the access of this website can have its pros, however; it may slow down the internet speed of the whole network due to the large bandwidth it consumes if a lot of the students access it.

YouTube is not a strong argument to point out for this issue. If the university has enough resources to increase its bandwidth, then its not a big issue to talk about since there's no debatable cons in the possible solution. If the university doesn't have enough resources, then the university may opt to create a business rule to regulate the bandwidth consumption. The issue can easily be resolved without great resistance to the solutions presented, hence it is not a debatable issue.

If we're going to look more at the website restriction list of De La Salle University, all hacking websites are banned. Cracking or many people refers to hacking is against the law. Republic Act 8792 Section 33 states that "Hacking or cracking, refers to unauthorized access including the introduction of computer viruses, is punishable by a fine from 100 thousand to maximum commensurating to the damage. With imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years". Though hacking may be illegal, there's this concept of ethical hacking. There is a degree in De La Salle University wherein the students are taught how to hack computer systems. The subject is intended for ethical hacking and for learning about network security. The computer laboratory of the course doesn't have any website restrictions thus the computers can easily hack computer systems or access hacking websites.

Why does the university allow these students who are taking ethical hacking course to hack computer systems if they block hacking website in the network? Students who are taking the course signs a contract that they will use what they've learned for ethical reasons. The only way to enter the ethical hacking class is to sign this contract or else you'll not be admitted to the class. Blocking hacking website to the network, for me, is a good call for the university. They will not promote illegal activity by blocking these illegal websites. If the students, by their own will, want to access it they could actually access it in their home or other networks which does not restrict access to it. There has been a lot of options that the university implements in order to not deprive the students of their academic development despite the range of website restriction in the university's network. Thus the restriction of these websites does not prohibit the student's academic development. If ever there's one website that can be seen as helpful in academic development, so far there is no debatable issues in the possible solutions for the problem.