Over the past two years the instances of copyright infringement on campuses throughout the country have become out of control. On September 8th of this year both the Motion Picture and Recording industries initiated lawsuits for what they identified as “substantial violators”, hosting an average of 1000 recordings. Other organizations like the Business Software Alliance (BSA) monitor the network constantly for frequent copyright violations.
Violations occur when protected material moves from one computer to another utilizing Peer-to-Peer file sharing. There are a number of programs that facilitate this activity, often unattended by the computer owner or primary user.
You as the primary user or owner of the computer are responsible for the content stored on local or shared disk drives. When protected material is identified as illegal on the open network the owner of that material may choose to exercise their protection options which may include lawsuits.
The University of Alaska network connectivity policy states that network usage is for academic and research purposes. Use of the network for the illegal transport of copyrighted or other protected material is in violation of this policy. Remedies for violations can range from temporary network suspension to full dismissal from the University.
Where do you go from here?
First of all recognize that any copyrighted or protected material does not belong to you. Even off the shelf software is only licensed for use and not owned by the purchaser.
Remove or purchase all material that is suspect from your disk drives.
Unless there are legitimate uses for hosting a peer-to-peer service, remove the service from your system.
If you have any questions or need further assistance please call the IT Services Call Center at 786-4646
