Overview
A team of university adminstrators, staff and students has been convened to address this issue. This website provides information on the team's activities to provide educational and technical responses to the campus community.
Background
Illegal file sharing involves downloading, copying and/or sharing copyrighted material, such as music, games, and movies. As a result, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is filing lawsuits against the individuals who engage in these activities. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) may soon do the same.
NC State was #9 on the RIAA’s list of Top 25 violators earlier this year. While a large proportion of students on campus may be engaged in illegal filesharing (in terms of absolute numbers), it is a very small proportion of the overall amount of illegal filesharing that takes place on the Internet. However, universities are easier to target than the usual ISPs (such as Verizon or Time Warner), which have a huge lobby in congress. Since the RIAA has only as an IP address (computer address) but no actual names of students, they send pre-litigation letters to students via the institutions. Students who receive such letters are then asked to pay a settlement or risk being sued.
The RIAA has also initiated legal action against universities for their role in providing the networks on which this activity occurs. Their recent efforts on this front went before Congress, but the bill did not pass.
This has primarily been viewed as a student issue, but university staff also engage in this activity.
Meetings
Other Information
Curren Campus Information Relating to Illegal File Sharing
Articles,
Reports, Research
Other Institutions' Response
updated
June 19, 2008
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