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As you may know from news accounts, the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) has launched a new campaign against computer users
who are engaged in illegal file sharing of music. This campaign is targeted directly at college
and university students. In the past few
weeks a number of Columbia
students have been identified by the RIAA as copyright violators. The RIAA’s motion picture counterpart, the
MPAA, has also significantly increased the number of copyright infringement
notices it sends to colleges and universities. The students targeted by the music and motion
picture rights organizations may face serious financial penalty as a result of
their choice to obtain copyrighted material online without paying for it. In light of these recent events, we want to
take the opportunity to better inform you about strategies copyright holders
are taking to stop this illegal activity and to remind you of the serious
consequences that can result if you persist in breaking the law.
First, as you have been told many times before, trading
copyrighted music, movies and games online is both illegal and a violation of
University policy. While you may
question how any activity so commonplace can be illegal, the fact is that such
activity is illegal. It is stealing
someone else’s intellectual property. Over 65 Columbia
students have already been sued for such activity and, with the recent campaign
announced by the RIAA, that number will continue to grow. Both the RIAA and its motion picture
counterpart, the MPAA, have sophisticated systems in place that scan the
internet to identify infringers at Columbia
by their Internet Protocol addresses. With
this information, the record and motion picture companies can file a lawsuit
against the individuals with these IP addresses and serve a subpoena on Columbia to obtain the
identity of the individuals. When served
with such a subpoena, the University is required to comply and release the name
of the student who is associated with the IP address in question.
In addition to filing lawsuits against users engaged in
illegal file sharing, the RIAA and MPAA, as well as other representatives of copyright
owners, file notices with the University under the procedures of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA). Columbia receives hundreds of such notices each year, and
as required by law, Columbia
takes action to remove infringing material brought to its attention. Columbia is
also required under the law to take escalating action against repeat
infringers, which may include cutting off access to the Columbia network.
Finally, as indicated above, the RIAA has notified the
University that it is instituting a new “pre-lawsuit settlement process”,
whereby it will send to the University “settlement letters”, identifying in
each case the IP address of an alleged infringer, and requesting that we
forward the letter to the individual associated with that address. We have already received a number of these
“settlement letters”, which we have forwarded to the users whose IP addresses
are implicated. According to these
letters, the individual users are given a period of time in which to come
forward and settle the claim at a discounted rate. If the individual does not settle the claim
within this time frame, the RIAA states that it will proceed with filing a
lawsuit and serving a subpoena on the University to obtain the identity of the
user sued.
In addition to the legal consequences mentioned above, it is
important for you to remember that violating copyright law is also against
University policy and can subject you to disciplinary action, which among other
things, will be noted in your record and may cause you difficulties beyond your
years as a student at Columbia.
For more information please go to the Columbia University
Information Technology website at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/policy/copyright.html.
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