Copyright Laws & Peer-To-Peer (P2P) File Sharing

In 2008 Congress passed and the President signed the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Several of the Acts provisions are intended to reduce unauthorized duplication of copyrighted works through peer-to peer (P2P) file sharing on campus networks. The University is providing you this notice in compliance with that legislation and the Department of Education regulations I 34 C.F.R. Part 668 (subpart D). You are strongly advised to read this notice thoroughly and give it careful consideration. Paper copies of this notice and the information referenced in it are available upon request from the Office of Student Services located in the Student Center Room 239.

The University of Louisiana at Monroe provides a high speed network and other information technology resources to help you accomplish your educational goals. When you activated your ULM Campus Wide ID, you agreed to abide by the University’s Appropriate Use Policy. More specifically, you agreed not to use University resources for unauthorized duplication, use or distribution of copyrighted materials, including music and video files. The university considers unauthorized P2P file sharing of copyrighted music and video to be an inappropriate use of its network resources. Moreover, such activity is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and exposes you to serious civil and criminal penalties.

Legal Liabilities

You can be sued for sharing copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. The law specifies that you can be liable for:

• Litigation costs, attorney fees, and actual damages, or statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 for each work infringed. The maximum is raised to $150,000 for cases of “willful infringement”.
• Possible criminal penalties up to $250,000, and/or imprisonment.
• Statutory damages of $200 to $2,500 for each action taken to circumvent technological measures used to control access to copyrighted works or prevent infringement of the exclusive rights of copyright owners. (Example: you rip a DVD and remove the CSS encryption)
• Statutory damages of $2,500-$25,000 for removal or alteration of copyright management information. (Example: You rip a DVD and don’t include the FBI warning in the copy)