Downloading Music
Downloading and/or Sharing Movies and Music from the Internet
(email message sent 8/31/2012 by Jonathan Enos, F&M CIO)
Dear Franklin & Marshall Students, Faculty and Professional Staff,
One of my responsibilities is to act as the agent designated to receive and act on copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). I would like to take this opportunity to remind each of you of your obligations while using the Franklin & Marshall data network as outlined in the Acceptable Use Policy. To quote the acceptable use policy with regard to sharing music and/or movie files, " ...under no circumstances shall these [network] resources be used to distribute copyrighted material whether it is images, music, software, movies, or any other digital content." In the past I have received Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Infringement Notifications that detail specific violations of music, software or movies being shared over the Internet by persons in the F&M community. If you read no further than this, remember: Sharing music and/or video files on the Internet from your computer is not a wise thing to do. Not only is it usually illegal (violating copyright laws), but our network monitoring tools make it very easy to identify exactly who is on the network from what address at what time. This is critical information when we are asked by the rightful owners of the copyrighted material to stop the sharing of their files. In other words, it is highly likely you will be caught and have to face the consequences of disciplinary action. Continued abuse will result in the suspension of your computing privileges at the College.
The College respects network users privacy and does not routinely search user files (see ITS Code of Conduct). However, the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires the College to identify copyright violators when subpoenaed. Instead of getting yourself in this position, I would encourage you to use ways to obtain music legally from the Internet. Information on how to do so can be found on this link.
The links at the end of each section below lead to our existing policy statement and/or further information. I would also be happy to discuss any aspect of these issues if you have any questions. Best wishes to all with the new semester!
--Jon
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Jonathan Enos, Ed.D.
Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer
Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA 17604 - 3003
Jon.Enos@fandm.edu 717.291.3982 http://www.fandm.edu
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AT FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE WITH RESPECT TO COPYRIGHT LAW:
COPYRIGHT LAW: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material regardless of the format of that material. Copyright law is complicated and its interpretation is sometimes controversial. The College has prepared a comprehensive guide* to copyright in an effort to help us all better understand what is allowable by law, and why some services that have been provided in the past may now be restricted. A summary can be found here.
*the full text of the Handbook on Copyright Policy is available on eDisk in the "Office of the Provost" public folder
PEER-TO-PEER PROGRAMS (P2P): As of September 1, 2007, we no longer allow P2P traffic on the network. Let me explain the reasons for this policy.
Franklin & Marshall invests significant resources to provide a robust, redundant and secure network infrastructure to allow students, faculty and professional staff to connect to resources and servers on campus and across the internet to support and enhance their academic and administrative collaborations. We provide this access, and the associated computing resources, in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws that pertain to copyright, security and intellectual property (see Responsible Computing at Franklin & Marshall).
For a number of years we have used network tools to limit the type of traffic that is allowed on the network. For example, we only allowed 5% of the capacity of the network to be used for P2P traffic. In spite of this restriction, we continued to see P2P traffic on the network and the overwhelming percentage of this traffic appeared to be music and video file sharing. We sent out annual messages about the dangers of sharing such files illegally and in spring 2007 you may remember a warning letter Dean Taber and I sent about new more aggressive tactics being adopted by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to curtail illegal file sharing of copyrighted materials.
Unfortunately, we continued to receive numerous copyright infringement claims from the RIAA and others that took considerable staff time to comply with and, in the end, individuals identified were still held responsible for their behavior and remained at-risk of a lawsuit and loss of network privileges. In fact, in summer 2007 we received eleven pre-settlement letters from the RIAAs counsel that outlined the minimum penalty of $750 per infringement (most had hundreds of songs identified) unless the claims are settled.
Therefore, for above cited reasons and the difficulty identifying any legitimate use of P2P file sharing that was directly related to the academic mission of the College, we began to block all P2P traffic as of September 1, 2007. Please note the decision to block P2P does NOT effect instant messaging, iChat, iTunes or Skype traffic, as each will continue to be allowed on the network. Further, there will be an appeal mechanism in place if you feel you have a legitimate need to use P2P file sharing programs in order to complete your academic responsibilities or successfully do your job at the College. Please contact me directly at 717-291-4073 or to discuss your situation. For information on how to legally download music from the Internet, click on this link
THE DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (DMCA): The DMCA specifies procedures that Franklin & Marshall must follow when notified an individual using our network is violating copyright laws. If the copyright holder contacts Franklin & Marshall's DMCA Agent about a violation we will stop network access for the individual, notify him/her of the notice we have received, and require removal of the offending material from his/her computer. The individual has the right to claim that the material is not protected by copyright and then a legal process begins. To date, every notice we have received has resulted in the offending material being removed.
PROTECTING YOURSELF: Because of functionality built into file-sharing software resident on your computer, your audio and video files may be available for uploading over the Internet without your knowledge or permission. The SHARING pane enables a Mac to be accessed from other Macs on a network via File Sharing, and other computers on the Internet via FTP and the Web. We recommend that you leave the SHARING features set to the default, which is off. Information Technology Services provides further information on how to turn off this functionality and tips on responsible computing. For more Information and tips, click here.
