Almost anywhere you go, Internet access is available; Wellesley College is no exception with its high-speed wired and wireless networks. Much of the material available on the Internet is free for the browsing, which is what makes the Internet what it is. However, some materials may be copyrighted and have been posted on the Internet against the wishes of the copyright holder. Using Peer-To-Peer (P2P) and other programs to obtain materials which are copyrighted is illegal unless permission is granted by the copyright holder.
You are not anonymous when you use the Internet; your online actions can be traced to you. Copyright holders have been increasingly seeking out individuals who are infringing upon their copyrights. Frequently they are targeting individuals at educational institutions. All members of the Wellesley community need to know their rights and responsibilities with respect to use of copyrighted materials and their potential liability for unauthorized sharing of files including movies, television programs, and music in digital format over the Internet. This document provides an overview of Wellesley's policies and procedures related to copyright infringement as well as steps you can take to protect both you and your computer.
All users of Wellesley's technology resources must follow College-defined policies for responsible use see http://www.wellesley.edu/acceptuse.html.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and other copyright holders have filed hundreds of lawsuits in the past year against individual university network users, claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages based on their peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing activities and consequent violations of federal copyright laws. By law, copyright holders can claim up to $150,000 per incidence of willful infringement. According to media reports, most college and university community members agreed to pay an average of $5,000 to settle the lawsuits instead of going to court. Thousands of subpoenas have been issued to Internet service providers, colleges and universities, and network administrators requesting identifying information regarding suspected violators. If Wellesley receives a properly issued subpoena, we are required to provide the name of the alleged violator. These subpoenas can lead to civil lawsuits that result in substantial financial penalties. In addition, copyright violations can be treated as criminal offenses by government prosecutors, for which the penalties are substantial.
Some people have argued that the entertainment industry has been overcharging for videos and music CDs and that sharing of copyrighted material is justified. Others feel that the entertainment industry has been too slow to adopt legal ways for material to be distributed over the Internet at lower cost. The debate about these policy issues does not alter the fact that most sharing of music, movies, and other copyrighted materials violates laws that you, and the College, are obligated to follow. If you share music, videos, software, or other copyrighted materials using College network facilities, you put yourself at risk of losing your College computing privileges, being charged by the College disciplinary bodies appropriate for students or employees, and facing claims for damages from copyright holders or even criminal prosecution.
Peer to Peer (P2P) programs have been developed to allow people to share information in digital formats. Although P2P file sharing is not in itself unlawful, programs like KaZaA, Limewire and BitTorrent are commonly used to share music and movies without regard to the restrictions placed on that material by the copyright owners. Most music, movies, television programs, and software are copyrighted and cannot be freely shared. This is the law.
If you have installed file-sharing software, files on your computer may be available to other P2P users on the Internet without your knowledge. Many file-sharing applications also receive a continuous stream of advertisements whenever they are open, degrading your computer's performance and using additional network bandwidth. In addition to the drain they place on network resources, peer-to-peer file-sharing applications pose a hazard to your privacy and to the security of files on your computer. Many of these applications come bundled with "adware" and "spyware", which allow third parties to monitor your Internet usage and send advertisements to your computer even when you are not using your file-sharing program. Many files available on peer-to-peer networks for download are infected with computer viruses, and some viruses are designed specifically to spread through peer-to-peer networks.
While you have the choice of what software to install on your own computer, P2P applications are very risky for your own security and privacy and for others on our network. There are especially serious risks in using P2P applications if you are using a College-owned computer and are employed by the College. Installing file-sharing applications could jeopardize the security of institutionally owned data.
Because of the potential harm to and misuse of institutional computing resources, Information Services recommends that you not install file-sharing or P2P software. In order to protect our systems and minimize damage caused by compromised machines, Information Services strongly recommends the following steps for all computer users:
For more information on how to turn off the file-sharing functionality of P2P software on your personally-owned computer, and for other tips on responsible computing please read:
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material (including photocopies of printed works) regardless of the format of that material. Copyright law is complicated and its interpretation is sometimes uncertain. Information Services 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 in the past were thought permissible may now be restricted.
This detailed copyright guide can be found on the Wellesley Web site at http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/copyright_ToC.html
Frequently Asked Questions on Copyright can be found at http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/copyright_FAQ2.html
Wellesley's Policy for Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources is available at http://www.wellesley.edu/acceptuse.html
The DMCA specifies procedures that Wellesley must follow when notified that an individual using our network is allegedly violating copyright laws. If the copyright holder contacts Wellesley about an alleged 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 which then initiates a legal process. To date, every notice we have received has resulted in the offending material being removed. Failure to remove the material, or repeated violations, can lead to denial of network access and other student or employee disciplinary actions.
The details about the DMCA procedures can be found at http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/dmca.html