Music was meant to be listened to and shared. But you need to do it legally!
Many of you have your music on computers and iPods (or other MP3 players). You have access to more music and entertainment online than any generation before you. You can download music to your devices or stream it over internet radio. You can set up your iTunes to share your music on a local network. You can access music services online (www.Ruckus.com, www.Napster.com, www.Rhapsody.com ) and pay per tune. All of those aspects of music listening and sharing are legal.
What you cannot do legally is serve up music....from your computer on the PSU network....to the world. If you are using file-sharing services like Grokster, LimeWire, BitTorrent or others to acquire music over the internet, you are taking copyrighted material without paying for it. And worse, if you are serving it up to others beyond our local network, you are contributing to a network of pilfered copyrighted material. For shame.
You are adults. We believe in the freedom of expression and privacy of network use. PSU will not block particular traffic. That said, as adults, you are responsible for your actions. If you use the PSU network (or other networks, like Verizon or Comcast) to share music files illegally, you are vulnerable to civil litigation from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its movie industry (MPAA) counterpart. Last spring, hundreds of students on college and university campuses received subpoenas from the RIAA notifying them of pending civil litigation. Many students payed hefty pre-settlement fees to avoid litigation. Many of those students were on New Hampshire campuses. (see Busted)
Please be aware of your rights and responsibilities. PSU has an Acceptable Computing Use Policy to which all of us are accountable. Please read it.
Share music responsibly! If you don't, it's on you.
For more information, contact the Help Desk at 2929 or send us a note.
Jeff Furlone, Residential Life. jfurlone@plymouth.edu
Dwight Fischer, ITS. dcfischer@plymouth.edu
It may be illegal, however why does that make us as students liable to the prosecution of the RIAA and MPAA? I have an article I wrote back in April on my blog which recounts the insanity of any university to comply with the RIAA and MPAA, it is located here: http://www.liamjewell.com/wordpress/?p=48
From the article:
"
When ... a University gets a notice from the RIAA, why do they forward it on to you? The RIAA does not know it was you who may have done the infringement, yet they school gives them your name and forwards the subpoena on without objection.
You’re probably thinking that it has to be that way, well NC State University sent the subpoenas back where they came from! The relevant news article is located at: (http://media.www.technicianonline.com/media/storage/paper848/news/2007/04/13/News/Riaa-Files.23.Lawsuits.Against.Ncsu-2839394.shtml). Essentially they said it’s illegal and that they had no reason to do the RIAA’s dirty work for them.
So why isn’t... your university following the same path with our personal information? I’ll leave that opinion for you to make on your own!
If you are interested in how to fight a subpoena if you have been wrongly accused, please check out my companion article on how to fight them which is located here: http://www.liamjewell.com/wordpress/?p=46.
A list of universities that are refusing to help the RIAA:
1. Harvard
2. University Of Kansas
3. University of New Mexico
4. College of William & Mary
5. N.C. State
6. Drexel University (Located in Pennsylvania)
An Interesting Story on IP Addresses and their relationship with a person’s identity.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12790
No longer just the administrators problem, the RIAA is targeting the University President’s too.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12428
A Slashdot story on how the entire RIAA identification process has no bearing in court. "
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/08/07/2316248.shtml
There has been a lot of debate around how campuses choose to act upon subpoenas delivered to the schools. UNH, KSC and PSU all chose to deliver the information to the student. The legality of the process is not for us to determine.
That said, the core issue remains. Students (and employees) need to demonstrate responsible network and internet behaviors.
That is a good question. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was legislated in the early 2000's. As an Internet Service Provider, PSU signed on to comply with the Act. So, too, did many colleges and universities. In doing so, PSU committed to developing a response process that would 1) inform students that they were violating copyright law and 2) create an escalation process for each new subsequent event.
The University signed the DMCA to reduce liability and to be responsible to the larger Internet. The actual decision was made by each of the campuses and collectively at the University System. Keene State, UNH and PSU all took a stance and signed it because it was (and is) the right thing to do. Additionally, failure to do so could bring risk of litigation from the RIAA.
It seems as though the students that took it upon themselves to illegally download the music or movie are not smart. Obviously colleges have tight internet security so why put yourself in the risk zone? I know why, people want music and they it want it for free. It is wrong to illegally download stuff that you have to pay for but who really thinks they are going to get caught, no one does. Stealing is illegal and it always will be, but that doesn't give people the right to download music for free when they should be paying. Those movies and songs that artists and actors produce take time and they expect a paycheck. If things continue to go the way they are they are not going to get paid and then eventually there will be no new music or movies.