Author: Erik Parker, Torch Staff
Due to entertainment copyright owners’ stricter policies, this school year has seen an increase in Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices that instruct offending students to cease illegal file sharing activity. Occidental College’s Information Technology Services (ITS) receives these notices primarily from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and helps students to make sure they obey copyright laws.
According to ITS Coordinator of Network Services Paul Hubbard, Occidental College has received a total of 53 DMCA notices this semester concerning 47 students, and ITS received 16 of these DMCA notices in one day.
When the RIAA or other such organizations contact ITS with a violation notice, Hubbard forwards the email to the responsible student and informs them of their options. “This is a violation of the campus network acceptable use policy,” he said. “The law says that when you get one of these messages, you have to stop sharing the file or files in question.” Hubbard then advises the student to disable or uninstall Peer-to-Peer (P2P) programs or move files to a location on the computer where the P2P program will not find them.
After receiving notification of copyright infringement from ITS, the student has one week to respond to ITS and inform the department of the actions taken. If the student does not respond within one week, his or her network and Internet privileges are taken away and the Dean of Students is notified. The student then has one more week to comply.
Hubbard said the Dean of Students has been involved on three such occasions, but following this development, the students cooperated. The College’s Chief Information Officer Pamela McQuesten stresses that ITS protects the offending students’ identities. “Copyright owners often hire other companies, such as MediaForce, to log into KaZaA or LimeWire in order to find the IP addresses of computers sharing specific illegal files,” McQuesten said. “Once an IP address has been logged, the ISP (Internet Service Provider) can be tracked down and notified that the computer is sharing an illegal file.”
In cases here, the College serves as the ISP that is notified and ITS uses the IP address signified by DMCA complaints to track a student. ITS serves as a mediator between the copyright owner and the student. According to Hubbard and McQuesten, at no point does the copyright owner learn the identity of the student.
“The College is not liable for copyright infringement that takes place on our network,” McQuesten said. “However, if the College does not take action against offending students, the College is then considered an accomplice.”
So far, the school has not received any settlement letters from copyright owners. McQuesten sent an email to the student body last May explaining that the RIAA was implementing additional measures to “aggressively pursue the prosecution of individuals who engage in illegal downloading.”
Settlement letters “are RIAA’s gesture at providing violators with an opportunity to settle claims without the necessity of RIAA instituting federal litigation,” McQuesten wrote last May. Hubbard said other educational institutions have had cases of settlement letters and that students have paid large amounts. “It’s easier than going to court,” McQuesten said.
“We expect to get [settlement letters],” Hubbard said. To avoid DMCA action, he advises students: “Don’t share it out.”
Copyright owners are developing increasingly sophisticated technologies to target copyright infringers, Hubbard said. “They are becoming more aggressive across all institutions.”
“It is a very controversial issue right now,” McQuesten said. This applies outside of colleges as well.
Last week, internal emails, a phone call and source code of MediaDefender, a company that tracks copyright offenders for the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), went public. These sources revealed MediaDefender’s strategies and policies, including the creation of a website which encourages users to upload copyrighted content only to report them to copyright owners.
McQuesten said she hopes students learn about copyrighting laws and are someday able to “help the country come up with good copyright laws.”
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