- Violating a Copyright Is An Illegal Activity
Transmitting or receiving copyright protected information electronically or otherwise without the consent of the owner is illegal. For more information about copyright laws refer to the U.S. Copyright Office.
An excerpt from the FAQ at www.copyright.gov Is it legal to download works from peer-to-peer networks and if not, what is the penalty for doing so? Uploading or downloading works protected by copyright without the authority of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright owner's exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. In addition, an infringer of a work may also be liable.
- P2P Applications Prohibited
Southern Illinois University Carbondale prohibits the presence of Peer-to-Peer applications on all computers utilizing RezNet, which is the campus residence hall network. Peer-to-peer applications, which are also known as P2P applications, offer the ability to transfer files from one client computer to another without the use of a server or intermediate storage facility. There is a long list of P2P applications. Some of the more well known applications are; Kazaa, BearShare, Napster, eDonkey, Limewire.
- Is the use of a P2P application inherently illegal?
No. There are justifiable and perfectly legal uses of P2P applications. However, the overwhelming use of P2P applications is to illegally distribute music, movies, software, book and other, similar intellectual property that are covered by copyright law.
- How do I know if something is copyrighted or how do I know if it is illegal to download a particular song or movie?
No. There are justifiable and perfectly legal uses of P2P applications. However, the overwhelming use of P2P applications is to illegally distribute music, movies, software, book and other, similar intellectual property that are covered by copyright law.
- What right does Southern Illinois University Carbondale have to dictate what applications I have on my computer?
SIU has a legal obligation to combat the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. The HEOA or Higher Education Opportunity Act, signed into law August 14, 2008 and effective July 1, 2010 outlines a series of requirements that higher education institutions must adhere to relative to illegal distribution of copyrighted material. The prohibition of P2P applications on student owned computers is one of the technology based deterrents used by SIU to be in compliance with the law. SIU does not own the student computer, but does own the residence hall and campus network and also owns the bandwidth used to access the Internet. As such, the University has an inherent authority over those resources and has established an acceptable use policy that "The SIU data facilities may be used only for lawful purposes". Click here to view the entire Acceptable Use Policy.
- What if I need to use a P2P application for my studies or research?
To request an exception, send an e-mail to admin@siu.edu. The e-mail should contain the activity that requires the use of a P2P application, contact information to include your first and last name, residence hall or office phone number, cell phone number, SIU e-mail address, the course number on which the request is being based, the name and contact information of the professor for the stated course and a detailed explanation why a P2P application is essential to the stated activity. An exception, if granted, is an exception to the rule that prohibits P2P applications from being on the computer. The exception DOES NOT grant the authority to illegally download or upload copyright protected material.
- Are there other ways SIU is combating the illegal distribution of protected material?
Yes. SIU uses a product from Audible Magic that identifies copyright protected material and blocks the transmission of the same.
- What are copyright infringement notices?
There are several organizations and business that actively searches for the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. Upon discovery of the illegal activity, a notice is sent to the owner of the IP address space from which the protected material is being distributed.
- What happens if I'm caught with a P2P application on my computer? What happens if the University receives a DCMA notice about my illegal sharing of copyright protected material?
On the first offense, your network access will be denied until you have read, understand and signed the University's Copyright Infringement Compliance Form. On the second offense, you will be referred to the Student Judicial Affairs office and punitive consequences. If you were granted a P2P exception, the exception will be revoked. Distributing copyright protected material without permission is illegal. If you are caught doing so, you can be prosecuted and if found guilty would be subject to whatever outcomes (fines, community service, etc.) the court determines include criminal and civil penalties.
- How do you know it was me illegally distributing copy protected material and not somebody else?
Each computer on the data network must have a unique address known as an IP Address. The IP Address can be thought of as being similar to the addresses used for houses. Your computer is configured to request an IP address when it is connected to the network. A log entry with a time stamp is made for each IP address request which includes your network ID. The copyright infringement notices includes the IP address that was illegally sharing the protected material and the time it was doing so. A correlation is made between the information in the notice and the log entry.
- Are there any legal alternatives?
Yes. There are many legal alternatives. Fundamentally, you can buy the copyrighted material you are interested. There are many resources where you can legally buy and download copyright protected material. There are also many FREE songs, movies, videos, books and other content available on the Internet. Using a search engine, search for "free [item]" and substitute the category of item you're interested in. For example type "free books", "free movies", free music", etc. Examples of legal download sites are iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube. Click here for a list of legal alternatives.
