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Open letter on illegal file sharing
Dear NC State students, faculty and staff,
This open letter is to alert students and employees of the personal risks involved with unauthorized file sharing of copyrighted materials. Copyright holders, such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), are more aggressively initiating legal actions against individuals engaged in illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. Students, faculty and staff who participate in these activities should be aware that they risk criminal prosecution and civil litigation. Additionally, students risk suspension or expulsion from school, and faculty and staff risk being dismissed from their jobs.
The practice of trading music, movies, games and software over the Internet has become commonplace on many college campuses. Although P2P file sharing programs (such as KaZaA, BitTorrent, Gnutella, iMesh, CuteMX, Scour and FreeNetfile) are not illegal, they can be used for illegal purposes. Downloading or sharing copyrighted materials without explicit permission from the copyright holder may be a violation of U.S. copyright law and punishable with prison time and severe fines.
Some people erroneously believe that illegal file sharing will not be noticed. The RIAA and other copyright holders use automated methods to identify infringements, and even small amounts of sharing can be detected. When copyright holders resort to legal actions, there is little the university will be able to do to protect those who infringe copyrights.
NC State University, in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), takes quick action when notified of alleged copyright infringements occurring from a computer connected to the campus network. Incidents are referred to appropriate campus officials, and steps are taken to stop unauthorized downloading or distribution of copyrighted materials. The university may also take disciplinary action against the individual responsible for or participating in the infringement.
We also urge you to consider the information security risks associated with the use of P2P applications. Many of these programs are set up by default to share personal information. This can be a significant risk if you store confidential information on your computer system. Additionally, file sharing applications have been used to introduce viruses which can cause irretrievable loss of data. For these reasons, individual colleges or units with data requiring security may determine that individual users in those units may not use peer-to-peer file sharing applications.
In cooperation with sister University of North Carolina institutions and the national higher education community, many individuals at NC State work to educate the campus about copyright and file-sharing issues. We hope you will join these efforts. For more information, see www.ncsu.edu/copyright. For assistance with removing peer-to-peer file sharing applications and copyright infringing materials, contact your departmental computer support professionals or e-mail help@ncsu.edu.
Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor
James L. Oblinger, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
George Worsley, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business
Posted February 11, 2004
All Rights Reserved
