websites who sell access to licenced material illegally

on Thursday, we got an email/ticket from a librarian at a
different 
university  that mentioned that they saw our URL on a
website.  They 
mentioned that the website looked like it could be one of
those sites 
where they essentially gave out username/password combos for
people to 
use to access Library online resources.  In the past, we
have seen those 
pop up, and before, when we managed our own list, were able
to simply go 
in and remove the username that was the culprit.  Now, since
we don't 
manage the list, it is a different problem ... one we pretty
much cannot 
police.  This site is in Chinese (simplified) and google
translator was 
able to read it for me.  What I see there appears to be
someone selling 
a NetID/NetPassword combination for people to use to get to
our journals 
and databases.  This leads to potential licensing agreement
violations, 
should the vendors/publishers find out about it.
 
Are any other Libraries out there experiencing things like
this 
happening, as well?  If so, what are you doing about it?

Below is the "google Translated" version.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2
Fbbs.proxycn.com%2Findex.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=
en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flangua
ge_tools 
<http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%
2F%2Fbbs.proxycn.com%2Findex.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&
;hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Fla
nguage_tools>

Thanks
Clay
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

On 1/29/2007 9:45 AM, clay wrote:

> ...What I see there appears to be someone selling
> a NetID/NetPassword combination for people to use to
get to our journals
> and databases.  This leads to potential licensing
agreement violations,
> should the vendors/publishers find out about it.
> 


Several of our member libraries have had student credentials
posted to
similar sites, such as:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht
tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.free789.com%2Ffree%2Fzhhao%2Fezproxy%2F%23&am
p;langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

When we spot suspicious activity ("Hmm, Alice Smith
downloaded 1200
journal articles last night - 400 each from sites in
Estonia, Turkey,
and Arizona..."), we alert the library in question that
they might need
to change the student's PIN or password.  Searching Yahoo or
Google for
the credentials sometimes turns up several web sites they've
been posted
to, where you sometimes find other accounts to check.


-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowlingohiolink.edu
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

On 1/29/2007 9:45 AM, clay wrote:

> ...What I see there appears to be someone selling
> a NetID/NetPassword combination for people to use to
get to our journals
> and databases.  This leads to potential licensing
agreement violations,
> should the vendors/publishers find out about it.
> 


Several of our member libraries have had student credentials
posted to
similar sites, such as:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht
tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.free789.com%2Ffree%2Fzhhao%2Fezproxy%2F%23&am
p;langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

When we spot suspicious activity ("Hmm, Alice Smith
downloaded 1200
journal articles last night - 400 each from sites in
Estonia, Turkey,
and Arizona..."), we alert the library in question that
they might need
to change the student's PIN or password.  Searching Yahoo or
Google for
the credentials sometimes turns up several web sites they've
been posted
to, where you sometimes find other accounts to check.


-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowlingohiolink.edu
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

    We ran into this problem when we were just using
institutional ID
numbers for authentication, so we switched to LDAP -- most
of our users
now get access to library online resources with the same
username and
password they use to log on to our campus network.  (We
still have a few
"friend of the library" type accounts maintained
in our circulation
system, which we could turn off if they were abused.)  A
user who
sold/gave away their network username and password on a web
site would:
1) Be enabling access to their network files, academic
transcripts, and
other confidential data, not just access to Library
resources, and 2) Be
in violation of the university's policy about not sharing
network
accounts.  So if a user was foolish enough to ignore 1), we
would have a
basis to ask our I.T. department to shut down their network
account
based on the policy.

        -Kerry

Kerry Bouchard
Director of Library Systems, Mary Couts Burnett Library
Texas Christian University
(817) 257-6809

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf Of clay
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 8:46 AM
To: web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] websites who sell access to licenced
material
illegally

on Thursday, we got an email/ticket from a librarian at a
different 
university  that mentioned that they saw our URL on a
website.  They 
mentioned that the website looked like it could be one of
those sites 
where they essentially gave out username/password combos for
people to 
use to access Library online resources.  In the past, we
have seen those

pop up, and before, when we managed our own list, were able
to simply go

in and remove the username that was the culprit.  Now, since
we don't 
manage the list, it is a different problem ... one we pretty
much cannot

police.  This site is in Chinese (simplified) and google
translator was 
able to read it for me.  What I see there appears to be
someone selling 
a NetID/NetPassword combination for people to use to get to
our journals

and databases.  This leads to potential licensing agreement
violations, 
should the vendors/publishers find out about it.
 
Are any other Libraries out there experiencing things like
this 
happening, as well?  If so, what are you doing about it?

Below is the "google Translated" version.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=
http%3A%2F%2Fbbs.proxycn.com%2Fi
ndex.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&
ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Fla
nguage_tools 
<http://translate.google.com/translate?u=h
ttp%3A%2F%2Fbbs.proxycn.com%2F
index.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&
;ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Fl
anguage_tools>

Thanks
Clay
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

    We ran into this problem when we were just using
institutional ID
numbers for authentication, so we switched to LDAP -- most
of our users
now get access to library online resources with the same
username and
password they use to log on to our campus network.  (We
still have a few
"friend of the library" type accounts maintained
in our circulation
system, which we could turn off if they were abused.)  A
user who
sold/gave away their network username and password on a web
site would:
1) Be enabling access to their network files, academic
transcripts, and
other confidential data, not just access to Library
resources, and 2) Be
in violation of the university's policy about not sharing
network
accounts.  So if a user was foolish enough to ignore 1), we
would have a
basis to ask our I.T. department to shut down their network
account
based on the policy.

        -Kerry

Kerry Bouchard
Director of Library Systems, Mary Couts Burnett Library
Texas Christian University
(817) 257-6809

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf Of clay
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 8:46 AM
To: web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] websites who sell access to licenced
material
illegally

on Thursday, we got an email/ticket from a librarian at a
different 
university  that mentioned that they saw our URL on a
website.  They 
mentioned that the website looked like it could be one of
those sites 
where they essentially gave out username/password combos for
people to 
use to access Library online resources.  In the past, we
have seen those

pop up, and before, when we managed our own list, were able
to simply go

in and remove the username that was the culprit.  Now, since
we don't 
manage the list, it is a different problem ... one we pretty
much cannot

police.  This site is in Chinese (simplified) and google
translator was 
able to read it for me.  What I see there appears to be
someone selling 
a NetID/NetPassword combination for people to use to get to
our journals

and databases.  This leads to potential licensing agreement
violations, 
should the vendors/publishers find out about it.
 
Are any other Libraries out there experiencing things like
this 
happening, as well?  If so, what are you doing about it?

Below is the "google Translated" version.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=
http%3A%2F%2Fbbs.proxycn.com%2Fi
ndex.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&
ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Fla
nguage_tools 
<http://translate.google.com/translate?u=h
ttp%3A%2F%2Fbbs.proxycn.com%2F
index.php&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&
;ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Fl
anguage_tools>

Thanks
Clay
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

(Sorry for the direct reply, Kerry)

Clay, I can't help much on how to solve your specific
problem.  But we had
something similar happen.. one of our vendors cut off our
access for
downloading thousands of music files, which was what made us
aware that this
was going on. We do have control over our authentication
lists, so we can
handle it locally, as well as cutting off IP ranges. 
Apparently some ISPs
are well known for not following up on complaints and since
we don't have
many faculty or staff members logging in legitimately from
Southeast Asia,
it's an option for us to limit more aggressively.

However, a quick experiment shows that at least some of
these sites are
indexed by Google.  To use my institution as an example...

Google advanced search for "ezproxy.wpunj.edu "
and Language = Chinese
Simplified.  I went through the results and they're no
longer valid
user/pass combos, but they're there.  I chose another
library, one I found
on the site Thomas posted, and it came back in the results
with currently
valid information.  So if your authentication server has its
own url, you
might want to search for it in different languages and see
what comes up.

--
Mark Sandford
Special Formats Cataloger
William Paterson University
(973)270-2437
sandfordm1wpunj.edu
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

(Sorry for the direct reply, Kerry)

Clay, I can't help much on how to solve your specific
problem.  But we had
something similar happen.. one of our vendors cut off our
access for
downloading thousands of music files, which was what made us
aware that this
was going on. We do have control over our authentication
lists, so we can
handle it locally, as well as cutting off IP ranges. 
Apparently some ISPs
are well known for not following up on complaints and since
we don't have
many faculty or staff members logging in legitimately from
Southeast Asia,
it's an option for us to limit more aggressively.

However, a quick experiment shows that at least some of
these sites are
indexed by Google.  To use my institution as an example...

Google advanced search for "ezproxy.wpunj.edu "
and Language = Chinese
Simplified.  I went through the results and they're no
longer valid
user/pass combos, but they're there.  I chose another
library, one I found
on the site Thomas posted, and it came back in the results
with currently
valid information.  So if your authentication server has its
own url, you
might want to search for it in different languages and see
what comes up.

--
Mark Sandford
Special Formats Cataloger
William Paterson University
(973)270-2437
sandfordm1wpunj.edu
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/