The U is cracking down on the use of illegal pirating software on U computers and on the U’s Internet connection.
In September alone, 170 complaints were issued to students and employees who were caught using the U’s Internet connection for illegal file sharing, according to the Office of Information Technology. The offenders use “peer-to-peer” sites such as LimeWire, KaZaa and Gnutella, which encourage unauthorized distribution of media files8212;a crime that, beyond disciplinary action from the U, could lead to lawsuits and fines.
“The bottom line is that many students are using LimeWire,” said Kevin Taylor, the office’s director of planning. “Every one of them has the potential of having the record industry coming after them.”
The U receives about 10 complaints a day from the music recording, motion picture, software and gaming industries, said Chris Kidd, the office’s chief security and privacy officer. The complaints are extremely specific, Kidd said, detailing the date and time of the download, the exact file, the number of times the file was uploaded and the IP address of the offender in the notification.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Higher Education Opportunity Act mandate that the U discontinue the network from the offender’s IP address and eliminate the offending file.
After informing students of the violation and its consequences, the U requires the student to sign an acknowledgement to discontinue uploading music on the U’s network. If the offense is repeated, which Taylor said has rarely happened, the student will be sent to the dean of students to face disciplinary action.
However, the consequences can be much more serious than a trip to the dean’s office. If found guilty of piracy, offenders face fines from $750 to $30,000 for every charge against them, Taylor said.
About a year and a half ago, a dozen U students were given a pre-litigation notice and the chance to either fight the accusation in court or agree to a settlement that was equivalent to a semester’s worth of tuition. Their fate is unknown, since students aren’t required to tell the school what their legal decision was, Taylor said.
Music piracy affects an audience much larger than the U. Piracy causes an economic loss of $12.5 billion each year spread out across entertainers, loss in tax revenues to the government as well as job losses, according to a 2007 report from the Institute for Policy Innovation.
