To:
[NAME]

We received the following email which references the IP address [IP], which our records indicate belongs to you. Please be advised that downloading or distributing copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder is against University policy and state and federal law. You are advised to review the University's computing policies, which can be found at:

http://www.ncsu.edu/it/rulesregs/

Please pay particular attention to the "Personal Use" section of the Administrative Regulations for Computer Use.

Please go to http://itdapps.ncsu.edu/resnet/copyright/ to acknowledge receipt of this email and what you have done to rectify the situation. If you have not engaged in the activity the email below implies or if this is not your IP address, please submit that information via the same web page.

The university is not at this time taking a stance on your involvement in the situation at hand; we are merely forwarding this information to you. You may wish to consult Student Legal (515-7091) or private counsel for advice on how to proceed.

Failure to respond to this message in a timely manner may result in the disabling of the ResNet connections in your room. Please use the web form; do not reply to this message or send a new one.

Sincerely, Carrie Levow
ResNet Coordinator

Underneath this email will be the original email sent from the copyright holder's agent. The copyright holder's email will include what files you (allegedly) were sharing and the date and time the sharing incident took place. The complaint may include other information, such as the file sharing program used or the username of the infringer. [See example letters: 1 2 3 4 5 ]

The first thing to consider is whether you are responsible for the file sharing.

You know you have file sharing software installed.

• Immediately stop sharing any files in question. Better yet, stop sharing the files and uninstall your file sharing software.
• If you are unsure whether you were sharing the files in question, you can do a search for the filename by going to the Start menu, selecting Search, and clicking All files and Folders. Click More Advanced Options, and make sure the boxes are checked for Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and Folders, and Search Subfolders . Type in a filename, and let your computer do the searching.
• Respond to the violation email stating that you found the files on your system and have stopped sharing them. Or, if you searched, and did not find any of the files in the email, respond to the violation email stating that you could not locate those files on your computer. Be aware that if we receive multiple complaints and you repeatedly say the files are not on your computer, we may send a technician to your room to verify the claims.
• We will respond with any further steps that need to take place.
  
  

People often claim that someone else used their computer and was responsible for the infringement. While this may be true, you are responsible for any infringement that occurs from your computer. You should be careful about letting others have free reign over your computer. You should also make sure to have passwords on your computer so no one can use it without your consent.

Ignorance of copyright laws is not a valid reason for breaking them. Before you use any file sharing software, you should educate yourself on the legalities of sharing files. A good place to start is NC State's copyright website.

The IP address in question does not belong to your computer.

• To check your IP address, follow these instructions .
• If your IP address does not match the one in the email, respond to the violation email with your IP address.

Your system has been hacked, probably with an IRC fileserve trojan bot . A good indicator of this would be if you know you do not have filesharing software installed, yet you find the infringing files on your computer.

• Respond to the violation email stating that you found the filenames, but are not running any filesharing software. We can then make an appointment to send a technician out to help you clean off your machine.
• In the violation email, most of the time you will see a protocol entry. If this entry is IRC, and you aren't intentionally using IRC, then you have a bot serving on your computer. See this for an example of a complaint of file sharing via an IRC network.

Repeat offenders will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct, and usually have their ResNet priviliges revoked for a period of time that varies per offender (as decided by the Office of Student Conduct).

See this page for more details about safe P2P.