Downloading and/or Sharing Movies and Music from the Internet
From: Jonathan Enos
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:38:25 -0400
To: OCI
Subject: Downloading and/or Sharing Movies and Music from the Internet
Dear Franklin & Marshall Students, Faculty and Professional Staff,
Good Morning to all. One of my responsibilities is to act as the agent designated to receive and act on copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Unfortunately, in recent days I have received numerous RIAA Infringement Notifications that detail specific violations of music, software or movies being shared over the internet by persons in the F&M community. Our network tools can easily identify the time and place of the violation and we are obligated inform those who are sharing the files to stop.Let me quote from the responsible computing policy that you all signed when you agreed to the conditions of having an account (username and password) on the F&M computer network: College computing facilities and accounts are to be used for the College-related activities for which they are designed. The college provides each member of the academic community ample file and web space to disseminate legal content. Under no circumstances shall these resources be used to distribute copyrighted material whether it be images, music, software, movies, or any other digital content. For more information, visit http://computing.fandm.edu/policies/responsible.php
If you read no further than this, remember:
Sharing music and/or video files on the Internet from your computer is not a wise thing to do. Not only is it usually illegal (violating copyright laws), but our network monitoring tools make it very easy to identify exactly who is on the network from what address at what time. This is critical information when we are asked by the rightful owners of the copyrighted material to stop the sharing of their files. In other words, it is highly likely you will be caught and have to face the consequences of disciplinary action. Continued abuse will result in the suspension of your computing privileges at the College.
The links at the end of each section lead to our existing policy statement and/or further information. I would also be happy to discuss any aspect of these issues if you have any questions. Best wishes to all with the new semester!
--
Jon
___________
Jonathan Enos, Ed.D.
Associate Provost andChief Information Officer
Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA 17604 - 3003
717.291.3982 http://www.fandm.edu
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AT Franklin & Marshall COLLEGE WITH RESPECT TO COPYRIGHT LAW:
COPYRIGHT LAW
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material regardless of the format of that material. Copyright law is complicated and its interpretation is sometimes controversial. The College has prepared a comprehensive guide to copyright in an effort to help us all better understand what is allowable by law, and why some services that have been provided in the past may now be restricted.
Detailed Guide*: http://ats.fandm.edu/about/copyright/PEER-TO-PEER PROGRAMS (P2P)
*the full text of the Handbook on Copyright Policy is available on eDisk in the "Office of the Provost" public folder
Spurred on by the widespread use of the Internet, P2P programs have been developed to allow people to share information in digital formats. In particular, programs like KaZaA, Gnutella, Morpheus, AudioGalaxy and others are commonly used to share music and movies without regard to the restrictions placed on that material by the copyright owners. Most commercially produced music and movies are copyrighted and cannot be freely shared. This is the law. Franklin & Marshall does not examine the information content that is being transmitted (e.g. the music itself) but does monitor the type of information (e.g., that is an MP3 file) in order for us to give priority to academic uses of our network. Members of our community must follow college-defined policies for appropriate use of technology resources.
Franklin & Marshall's Responsible Computing Policy: http://computing.fandm.edu/policies/responsibleTHE DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (DMCA)
The DMCA specifies procedures that Franklin & Marshall must follow when notified an individual using our network is violating copyright laws. If the copyright holder contacts Franklin & Marshall about a violation we will stop network access for the individual, notify him/her of the notice we have received, and require removal of the offending material from his/her computer. The individual has the right to claim that the material is not protected by copyright and then a legal process begins. To date, every notice we have received has resulted in the offending material being removed.
DMCA Procedures: http://computing.fandm.edu/enos/agent.phpRECENT LEGAL ACTIONS
Recently, the RIAA has taken further action to subpoena the names of people who are sharing large amounts of music. If Franklin & Marshall receives a subpoena, we are required to provide the name of the violator who is using our network. These subpoenas can lead to lawsuits, substantial financial penalties and perhaps jail time. In the spring of 2003, for example, four students at other colleges settled copyright claims against them out-of-court for approximately $15,000 each. The consequences of illegally sharing copyrighted material over the Internet are serious.
Some people have argued that the recording industry has been overcharging for music CDs and that music sharing is justified. Others feel that the recording industry has been too slow to adopt legal ways for music to be distributed over the Internet at lower cost. Regardless, most music and movie-sharing violates the law that we are bound to uphold. If you distribute copyrighted music and videos you are putting yourself at risk of losing computing privileges, facing College disciplinary action, and facing prosecution under civil and criminal laws.
PROTECTING YOURSELF
Because of functionality built into file-sharing software resident on your computer, your audio and video files may be available for uploading over the Internet without your knowledge or permission. The SHARING pane enables a Mac to be accessed from other Macs on a network via File Sharing, and other computers on the Internet via FTP and the Web. We recommend that you leave the SHARING features set to the default, which is off. Computing Services provides further information on how to turn off this functionality and tips on responsible computing.
More Information and Tips: http://computing.fandm.edu/training/osx/preferences.php