It has become popular practice to download movie, music, and software files from peer networks online. One of the first online services that made this possible was Napster. This violates both copyright and criminal law. According to the music and movie industries, the majority of the offenders are college students using their college Internet service. In an effort to recover lost revenue, these industries are sending universities hundreds of copyright infringement claims.
Washington State University has received some claims that students here are downloading or sharing unauthorized files. WSU is also liable for copyright infringement when students or other campus network users engage in this illegal activity. The Washington State University Copyright Office operates an education program to alert students to the dire consequences of this activity.
Campus Internet users who have been caught ask,
“Why wasn’t I warned about
this?”
Both the Washington State University Student
Handbook and Calendar and the WSU Web site on
Electronic
Publishing and Appropriate Use Policy restrict this
activity. This brochure is another educational outreach
and explains the problem’s dynamics.
Is it against the law or WSU rules to download
or enable others to download movies, songs, or software
with my WSU computer?
YES. Unless you have the copyright holder’s
permission or legally purchase the files, you are
violating the law, University policy, and your access
agreement. Sharing or downloading illegal files
infringes the copyrights of the artists, studios, and
recording companies that published the content of these
files.
MP3, peer-to-peer (P2P) and related Internet search,
share, or “FastTrack” technology has made
it easy to copy files contained on the computers in any
given network. Software like BitTorrent, BearShare,
Grokster, Morpheus, Direct Connect, FlatLan, Phynd,
Soribada, SoulSeek, and Kazaa are just some of the ways
to accomplish this. If you search for files with
movies, music, or software and save copies on your
computer—without the permission of the copyright
holders—you have infringed their copyrights and
violated WSU policy. Even if your computer has
legitimate copies of these files, you violate the law
and University policy when other users access your
files to download copies. Hosting a Web site that
searches for or enables others—in any
way—to copy illegal files is also a violation of
law and University policy. Many file-sharing software
packages are designed to distribute files on your
machine to others, and this can occur even if you think
you have disabled this function.
Hog of University Bandwidth
Copying and distributing illegal files use an enormous
amount of network bandwidth. Besides being illegal and
against University policy, it reduces available
bandwidth for others who need it for legitimate
academic purposes. While the University does not look
at the content of an individual’s network
traffic, Information Technology does monitor bandwidth
utilization and can isolate and identify any user who
utilizes significant bandwidth for illegal file-sharing
or other prohibited activities.
Violation of WSU Computer Use
Policy
Anyone who uses the computer network at WSU must comply
with the legal guidelines. These guidelines are located
at www.wsu.edu/ElectronicPolicy.html.
The guidelines are also published in the Student
Handbook and Calendar. The guidelines say:
Inappropriate Use:
WSU computer resources, information technologies, and
networks shall not be used for (among several other
prohibited activities):
- Violating copyright law (thus, information technology and network users who do not hold the copyright on a work must have permission to publish information, graphics, cartoons, photographs, or other material, or the publication must be otherwise permitted under copyright law);
- Copying of software in violation of a license or
when copying is not authorized.
Is it possible to be detected downloading or
enabling others to download movies, music, or
software?
YES. The movie and music industries have private
detection agencies that use new technology to trace
copyright-protected files directly to the source. Once
they locate a computer that transfers unauthorized
copies, they notify WSU that they have a copyright
infringement claim and provide the IP address of the
computer hosting the unauthorized files.
The notice of copyright infringement follows a
procedure prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
According to that procedure, WSU must respond quickly
to terminate Internet access of the computer identified
in the claim while an investigation is conducted.
What happens if I get caught downloading or
hosting a Web site that enables others to download
unauthorized movies or music?
Your Internet port may be turned off immediately and
without notice. Then Information Technology or Student
Affairs will contact you. If this is your first
offense, your service may be restored in time if you
satisfy the following conditions:
- Delete all unauthorized files;
- Attend a copyright education workshop; and
- Sign a written statement that you will comply with the computer use policy in all future activities on the WSU computer network.
Repeat offenders may permanently lose their WSU network
privileges, and under certain circumstances, the case
may be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement
agency.
Your Liability to Copyright
Holders
You will still be liable for copyright infringement for
unauthorized copying or enabling copying of movie,
music, or software files. The copyright holders may
file a lawsuit against you as an individual. You may
even be prosecuted under the No Electronic Theft Act.
If convicted, you may be sentenced to prison and fined.
If the copyright holders decide to sue you and they win
the lawsuit, the judgment against you may include
“statutory damages,” ranging from $750 to
$30,000 for every illegal copy you made. If the court
finds that you copied the files
“willfully,” the copyright holders may be
awarded additional punitive damages.
Has any student ever been sued for sharing
movie, music, or software files?
YES. On April 3, 2003, the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) sued four students from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Princeton, and
Michigan Technical University. The lawsuit claimed that
one of the students operated a network that offered one
million files. It was estimated that the
student’s potential liability under copyright
laws was $150 billion. The lawsuits were reported
settled for amounts ranging from $12,000 to $17,000, a
far higher price than if the students had legally
purchased the music. The RIAA is now suing hundreds of
people for sharing music files.
For further information see:
The WSU copyright site at: http://publishing.wsu.edu/copyright/index.html
The book Copyright Law On Campus, published by
WSU Press, is part of the copyright education program.
Call 800-354-7360 or e-mail jslynn@wsu.edu.
To order the book online, go to http://wsupress.wsu.edu/
or contact:
Marc Lindsey, WSU copyright specialist, at 335-1214 or
lindseym@wsu.edu.