BY ALI
CHEESEMAN
Staff Reporter
Downloaders
beware; the Recording Industry Association of America is taking legal action
against any person caught sharing files of copyrighted material over the
Internet.
In a Sept.
8 e-mail message and a revised e-mail message Sept. 9, the university stated
it will comply with subpoena requests for information about its students
and will supply this information to industry executives. Furthermore, the
university may or may not inform students that they have been reported.
The e-mails
also stated penalties for students found guilty could range from $750 to
$150,000 per downloaded file.
Karl Hassler,
associate director of Information Technology Network and Systems Services,
said the university became aware of the RIAA stepping up its efforts over
the summer.
The RIAA
launched a multi-faceted assault on public copyright infringements and
began issuing subpeonas requesting the identities of users who are abusing
the Internet to access illegal files, he said.
The university
is not actively searching for people to turn in, Hassler said. However,
if subpoenaed, it will have to hand over information on students.
"We are
interested in complying with the law," he said. "If Congress decides to
change the law, then we will change with it."
Congress
will be holding hearings on whether the laws should change regarding file
sharing, he said.
Although
the university does not routinely monitor or review the content of traffic
on the network, they do monitor bandwidth abuse, Hassler said.
Kathryn
Goldman, director of the university's Office of Judicial Affairs, said
it is essential for students to understand how important it is to honor
copyrighted material, whether it is music or classroom material.
The university
is taking this very seriously, she said. However, it is also an educational
process to teach students responsible computing and that downloading copyrighted
material is plagiarism.
Initially,
if a student is caught with copyrighted information on their computer,
IT services will wipe the computer clean, Goldman said. Judicial Affairs
will then educate the student and explain the future consequences if the
student continues downloading.
If a student
does disregard this initial warning, she said that person could face loss
of computer privileges, charges of failure to comply and violation of responsible
computing policy and/or deferred suspension.
"We would
hate to suspend a student," Goldman said, "but, if they want to enjoy their
privileges we expect them to abide by the policies."
Sophomore
Sara Fontanella said she has not downloaded anything in the residence hall
since she received a warning e-mail from IT Services.
"I like
to download music," she said. "I don't want to buy everything, but I guess
it is unfair to the artist."
If she
were not currently experiencing computer problems, senior Annie Wristen
said she would continue to download from file-sharing software. She said
she thinks other students would also risk getting caught to download files
free of cost.
"The odds
are pretty small to be picked out of thousands of students," Wristen said.