Pilfering, Pinching, Swiping, Stealing: The New Student Experience

Students entering first-year at Universities across Ontario, including Western, Guelph, Laurier, and Waterloo, are met with a welcome surprise: they will now be able to steal media at exceptionally fast speeds from DC++. Movies, music, software, documents - all download in under a minute. You can even download the entire P90X workout series for free, as advertised on TV infomercials for the usual convenient price of 3 monthly installments of $39.99 + $19.99 S&H. To many first-year students, this is the equivalent of the best candy-store on earth, compressed into one deliciously accessible internet candy shop that they can sneak as much as they want from without getting caught. The system works by peer-to-peer file sharing over the completely secure university networks, available to students in residences only. Basically a restricted, protected Limewire on speed, since instead of sharing files over the worldwide web, students are downloading from their friends down the hallway on a closed network. Awesome, money-saving, novel, useful....but stealing?

I have never spent much time second-guessing DC++. To me, it is students sharing their personal libraries (some students have over 2 terabytes of library) with their peers. But this year, I have been more than overwhelmed with the pinching swiping stealing pilfering plundering that has infected this university. I am not talking about a few unlucky instances that happened to a few friends of mine. I am talking about a greed that is rampantly spreading to become some sort of absurd adiction. Some examples:

- My bike this year. At noon from the middle of the university, concrete beach. Upon reporting to police, he said I was the 6th person reporting a stolen bike in his shift alone, that day. He suspected more reported to his partner.
- Elyna's umbrella. In lecture, umbrella was set beside her. Next she looked, it was gone. She walked home in the rain.
- Kelsci's textbook. From the library, takes a moment of relief and upon her return, her textbook has been pilfered. $120+ to replace, and exam the next day.
- Clara's purse from Jim Bob's. They found her coat check ticket in her wallet, checked out her coat, and took that too.
- My back pack and jeans from gym locker. Valuables stowed away behind a lock, I left my bag, with 2 library books, and a notebook unlocked. They took the backpack and my jeans, leaving my sweater and jacket. The jeans were from Winners - I spent the evening at the library in bright blue WOSS gym shorts.
- Shelbonn's house. Kicked in the backdoor, pilfered.
- Laptop at King's party on St. Patty's day.
- Dan's laptop charger from the lib.
- Alex's legit coat from the Frog.
- Cologne from our washroom during party.
...to name a few off the top of my head.

Although many of these robberies have clearly affected me, thus demonstrating the inspiration for this post, I think this constitutes more than just "occasional events". Theft is now a reality at UWO that has students anxiously packing up their books to go the washroom, stowing their valuables in their homes, and keeping an eye on their umbrellas during class.

I don't blame this on the normalisation of media-theft through programs like DC++. I don't think students steal because they watch a pirated DVD they bought for 2 bucks in China town. But the availibility and normalization of free media certainly engenders a passive acceptance to unethical taking. And this overwhelming theivery, causing students to watch their backs as if they were tourists in a market place, is evidently a symptom, possibliy of this overwhelming passitivity and politness.

If someone had actively stepped out and asked that person why they were taking that textbook "that i'm sure that girl was using", perhaps that theft would have been avoided. If people actually said no, I would not like to buy that ipod/laptop/charger/coat/cologne that you "found", then perhaps the motivation to steal would begin to dissipate.

I am not saying that stealing would end if people were a little more ethically confrontational. I am saying I may be able to feel like I'm living in comfortable Canada again, where we can trust our coat on a hook rather than stashed behind a guarded counter, or bring an umbrella to class, and expect to use it on the walk home. But maybe this just isn't the UWO experience.