Questions You May Have About Copyrighted Materials

What’s this all about?
Downloading music and videos has practically become a national pastime.  There are very legitimate ways of doing this, such as Apple’s iTunes Store.  Unfortunately, many computer owners have a practice of unlawfully downloading music and videos through file sharing programs such as KaZaA, Ares, and bitTorrent.

Since it is illegal to share copyrighted music and videos, the practice of doing so brings legal liabilities to both the user and the Internet service provider they use.  In our case, this means the student and the institution.  Some users have been under the misconception that since they paid for their music sharing software via something like PayPal, they have also purchased the right to download copyrighted files.  This is certainly not the case.

How about sharing your files with others?
This is an even more egregious practice in the eyes of the law.  By doing so, you are allowing many others to unlawfully obtain copies of files.

Furthermore, the institution expressly prohibits the operation of servers of this nature, due not only to the bandwidth impact, but also due to the legal liabilities created.  Several higher education institutions have come under fire from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) when these associations have discovered that students are practicing file sharing of copyrighted materials.

What are the consequences if I don't comply?
Your network privilege will be terminated temporarily or permanently as determined by Information Services in conjunction with Student Affairs.