IT policy prohibits illegal downloading

IT policy prohibits illegal downloading

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News Staff

If you’re a Rice student, staff or faculty member, here’s a notice you don’t want to receive:

“Rice University’s General Counsel and the Information Technology Security Office have received notices from external copyright holders alleging they have observed your computer infringing on one or more of their copyrights.”

That means your computer has been linked to illegal downloading of music, movie files or other copyrighted material, and the university has been notified of the alleged violation of copyright law.

PHOTOS.COM

Rice’s “Appropriate Use Policy” (No. 832-99) states that making unauthorized copies of or downloading copyrighted materials is against the law and may result in civil and criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment. All students, faculty and staff members have to acknowledge acceptance of the policy to get a Rice computer account.

The Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and similar groups contract with companies that monitor peer-to-peer networks, such as BitRotten and BitTorrent, for the transmission of copyrighted works.

When these companies observe unauthorized file sharing, they notify Rice’s associate general counsel, Joe Davidson ’84, about the date and time of the infringement, the name of the copyrighted work and the Rice computer address associated with the download.  Davidson is Rice’s designated agent for receipt of complaints under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Marc Scarborough, Information Technology (IT) security officer, follows up on the complaint. The detective work that is required to track down the student, faculty or staff member whose account was associated with a particular IP address at the time of the incident sometimes takes an hour or more per case, but Scarborough follows up on each notice and meets privately with each alleged offender.

“Most first-time offenders don’t realize that unless certain options are selected, when they download a file illegally, their computer continues to share that file with other users,” Scarborough said. “Their computer becomes a node that is simply transferring files back and forth. That’s how peer-to-peer networks work.”

Once Scarborough zeroes in on the computer address associated with the illegal downloading, he blocks that address; the owner won’t be able to access e-mail, and if they go online, they will see a Web page notifying them that the address has been quarantined, along with instructions to visit the IT security office in the Seeley G. Mudd Computer Science Laboratory.

During a one-on-one meeting, Scarborough informs the accused of the complaint, reminds them of the Appropriate Use Policy and asks them to remove the illegal material from their computer.

About 98 percent of the notices about illegal downloading at Rice involve students’ computer account, Scarborough said. “Some students don’t think it’s a big deal because they did it at home, where it was easier to get away with because the industry doesn’t crack down on home users as much as they do on college campuses,” he said. “I tell them that illegal downloading is theft. It’s a serious matter that can affect them and their future at Rice.”

Most offenders cooperate once they have been informed about the violation, Scarborough said. Second-time student offenders are referred to Rice’s Student Judicial Program.

If Rice receives a subpoena for the identity of the alleged offender, the university is legally obligated to provide the person’s name and contact information. That student, staff or faculty member may then get served or threatened with a lawsuit and have to work out a settlement with the owner of the copyrighted material.

“Fortunately, most people in the Rice community obey copyright laws and will never have to worry about getting a notice from the IT security office,” Scarborough said. “But it’s important for everyone to know about the potential consequences and to make sure they do not allow their computer account to be used by others.”

The seriousness of illegal downloading on college campuses prompted the U.S. Senate in July to consider an amendment to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act that would have required colleges and universities with the largest number of offenders to take costly and painstaking efforts to police illegal file sharing. That amendment was withdrawn, but the House of Representatives might raise the issue again this fall.

For details about Rice’s Appropriate Use Policy, visit http://www.rice.edu/vpit/aup.html.