Memo: Illegal file sharing January 28, 2008

It is imperative that all students read the following memo on the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials in its entirety.

The purpose of this memo is to officially notify all students, that it is a violation of federal law and College policy to share and/or distribute copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. Violators may be subject to civil and criminal prosecution under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as well as personal sanctions specified in College policy.

File-sharing software is most commonly used to download music, movies, and other media. Many do not realize that this software may turn your personal computer into a server, or upload site, even if that was not your intent. Many viruses also propagate through peer-to-peer software, and this has a direct impact on services for our entire community. Files on your network-connected computer may then be illegally shared with everyone connected to the Internet. It is imperative that the file-sharing capability of these systems be disabled. If you do not know how to disable this function, please contact the Help Desk at 201-684-7777 or helpdesk@ramapo.edu.

Industry representatives actively monitor the Internet to discover incidents of illegal file sharing. When violations are discovered, they contact the network owner and ResNET user and Ramapo College from further culpability under the DMCA, Ramapo College will disable network access for any machine for which a DMCA complaint has been received.

Students with these alleged violations will have their cases referred from the ITS Department to the Office of Student Conduct where an officer will be assigned to the case. Incidents of this nature are a violation of the College’s Responsible Use of Electronic Communications Policy and a violation of our Code of Conduct (Code #24). Students will receive a Notice to Attend a Disciplinary Proceeding through their campus mailbox. In some cases, depending on the egregiousness of the offense and/or a student’s prior record, the case could be adjudicated by the Office of Student Conduct Review Board which administers penalties, under a finding of guilt, that is suspension and expulsion level. The 2007-2008 Student Handbook can be accessed on the Student Life website.

Once a case has been resolved in the Office of Student Conduct, the network service will be restored by the ITS Department. In addition to other sanctions under the Code of Conduct, the user will be mandated to disable the file-sharing function of their software and agree to discontinue all illegal file-sharing activity.