Finally

USC gives up.

http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2007/09/25/News/Cinematic.Arts.Gives.Green.Light.To.Upload.Films-2989682-page2.shtml

They get rid of the "no posting films online" policy. I love the attitude now that it was all this big honest mistake, an old rule written long ago before they knew the internet was going to be so big. In 2007? It took the USC Cinema School - a pioneer in new media and arts until 2007 to realize how big posting short films on the internet was going to be?

All right, I'm being a bit harsh. They are about 2-3 years late - when YouTube became big...which, in the scheme of things, for a big bureaucracy like USC, is not awful. But this policy was in place while I was in the middle of film school and the ridiculous excuses the administrators of the policy used to tell students were totally annoying and stupid (even in hindsight).

As a side note, people posted their films online anyway - despite the policy. There was no way USC could enforce it - who is going to peruse online and do the necessary research to track down the violators? Further, how stupid would they have looked if they tried to prosecute it? So does this matter? Only sort of. USC had to change their rules both because it was the right thing to do and because no one paid attention anyway.