Illegal File Sharing and Downloading
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THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES TO ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADING COPYRIGHTED MUSIC OR MOVIES!
Those that are found to have illegally downloaded or shared copyrighted music and/or movies are subject to Criminal and Civil Penalties ranging from $750 per work infringed to $150,000.00.
Ohio University Code of Student Conduct requires users of OU computer-related resources to comply with all applicable laws including, but not limited to, those related to copyright and trademark.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade group which represents most of the major record labels. The RIAA routinely monitors popular file sharing Web sites so as to identify users’ IP addresses. In 2007, more than 100 Ohio University students were accused of illegal sharing of files by the RIAA. The majority of students paid $3,000 to the RIAA to avoid a lawsuit.
Downloading and sharing copyrighted materials over the internet is ILLEGAL, and there is a good chance you will be caught. File sharing software such as Limewire, Kazaa, BitTorrent, Blubster, Grokster, or any other software that can be used to download music or movies is automatically set up to share files without the user being aware of it. To prevent this, DO NOT install file sharing software on your computer. It does not matter if you are using a university computer or your personal computer since the IP address identifies the internet service as Ohio University in either case.
To get information on legal downloading, please visit http://www.campusdownloading.com/faq.htm
or contact Ohio University Information Technology at (740) 593-1222.
