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.