There are some recurring questions
regarding our efforts to inform users about the risks
illegal file sharing on campus,
and our decision to curtail bandwidth allocated to common
peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services. While we are
not giving legal advice, we can clarify how Bates handles
these
situations.
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How will Bates protect my rights if I am accused by a copyright owner? |
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When Bates receives complaints from copyright owners regarding alleged illegal activity on IP addresses, we identify the users involved, forward the complaints to them, and require them to take down the content and let us know when that process is complete. We take additional measures (such as terminating the network connection) if the user doesn't respond or remove the file within a specified time frame, and take additional steps where we find repeat offenders. We get such requests rather routinely. We protect the identity of our computer users, and will not release the name of the user to the copyright owner unless we are presented with a valid subpoena or court order. If we are presented with a valid subpoena, we will comply with its requirements. In any case, you are individually accountable to the RIAA or any copyright holder, and Bates cannot protect you from that.
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I pay a lot to come to Bates. Haven’t I paid for the right to do whatever I want on the network? |
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You have a right to privacy regarding information you store on the network, and you have a right to your fair share of network resources. As outlined in the Bates College Computer Use Policy, these rights are not absolute. You must obey the law, and your use of the network should not infringe on the use of others. Bates does not convey to you a right to violate the law. Bates also must comply with the law or we put at risk our ability to provide a network for you. The Internet is not a private network. You should know that your communications could be monitored by anyone who knows how to do it, and files can be tracked. Complying with the law is not just the right thing to do, it is also a good way to avoid risk.
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What if I used a P2P
file-sharing program before and the MP3's are still
on my hard drive? |
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If you have illegally obtained files on your computer, you should remove them. Don’t figure that you are smarter than the large companies who are willing to spend tons of money to protect their property and find your files. |
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Will Bates inspect my computer? |
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The Computer Use Policy states:
“Information and Library Services staff charged with the responsibility for maintenance of the integrity and security of the College's computing systems are permitted to copy or move user files for routine backups and preservation. They are authorized to investigate possible abuse of computer systems, and to take appropriate action. Users can expect that staff will not inspect the contents of their files without proper justification and authorization.”
As a network service provider, we are responsible for making the network available to you. You are responsible for the contents of your files. We cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigation of crimes that involve the Bates network or Bates computers. We also cooperate with College officials investigating violations of College policy. We are authorized to inspect the contents of files if needed to carry out our responsibilities to maintain the network. If we uncover illegal activity in such an investigation or in routine network maintenance work we will take the appropriate steps. If we identify materials on Bates computers that appear to be illegal, we will disable access to them until we can determine with the user if proper permissions have been secured. If we identify such materials on personal computers connected to the Bates network, we will inform the user and take additional steps as necessary. We take comparable steps if violations of College policy are discovered. The Computer Use Policy applies to all Bates computer users and is available on the Web at:
http://www.bates.edu/ils/policies/computingPolicy.html
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What if I've already
purchased the material? |
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Whatever rights you have to individual use of CDs, DVDs or other digital materials, they usually do not include the right to share copies of them with others, unless you have permission of the copyright owner. If you have files on systems that can be publicly accessible to others, you should remove them. Copyright owners are really interested in finding people who are illegally sharing their property. |
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There is always a work around: what happens
to me if Bates finds out that I use something else
that is similar to P2P? |
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In order to limit the College liability and the inevitable resource demands to respond to cease-and-desist orders, subpoenas, or other efforts by copyright owners to identify individual users and stop them from illegally using their property, we will work with our vendors to block existing and emerging file sharing protocols. We make no claim that our efforts will be successful, and you should not rely on our measures to limit peer-to-peer traffic to protect you. Whatever the circumstance, you are responsible for your own compliance with copyright law, and are liable for any complaints brought against you by copyright owners. |
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Can I setup an FTP account
to share files? |
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How you share the files is beside the point. Whether P2P or FTP, if you are sharing files illegally, you open yourself and others to enormous risk. In addition, most FTP connections are insecure; using them opens your network account and your files to any number of risk factors. |
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What if I have full consent to share
the copyrighted material, can I then share it? |
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If you have permission to share the material, by all means go ahead. You should not use the common peer-to-peer file sharing protocols however. We have blocked them. Their use compromises our network integrity, and they appear to be used overwhelmingly by users who are not as careful as you about permissions. If you have a legitimate need to share files, please contact Help Desk Services so we can discuss your needs. |
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If you are blocking
P2P applications, why don’t you just block all
web downloads? I can still access MP3 files and illegal
wares from ‘underground’ websites. |
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The Web is used for legitimate educational, business and recreational purposes—in fact it is not essential to higher education. We don’t think it wise to block all MP3s or other formats. We would not want to discourage users from obtaining music from composers and producers, or the very active availability of materials from some artists. |
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I own the software/music files already,
but I do not have the proper software to back up the
CDs on my computer, so I want to download the file(s)
from a P2P application. Why are you stopping me? This
is legit after all. |
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You may have rights to back up your legally obtained copies. This usually does not give you the right to get another copy from someone who does not have the right to share it. If you want to download the material from the producer’s web site, our block on P2P sites should not affect you at all. |
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OK. I’ll just
make the materials I want available on the campus network
and get it that way. What’s wrong with that? |
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You should be aware that some of the copyright owners have specifically targeted on-campus distribution. If you get a copy of something from someone who does not have the right to share it, or if you share it yourself, you are putting yourself, and perhaps others, at risk. |
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You say ‘to reduce the impact on
the College, we are eliminating the Internet bandwidth
associated with common file sharing services.” Would
you clarify what this means? Will this affect legal
exchange of music or video files? |
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The “bandwidth” we are reducing is the amount of Internet connectivity we allocate to specific peer-to-peer file sharing systems. These are not used for an educational purpose here at Bates. This is not the same bandwidth that is used to stream audio and video content for educational purposes. |
Especially
for Faculty Members: [for all users] |
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What techniques
does the College recommend to share materials with
my class?
Isn’t sharing this material the same as the
illegal file sharing you are talking about? |
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Information and Library Services have several methods that can be used to make materials available under ‘fair use.’ These include library reserves and password protected web resources tied to enrollment (Lyceum). You should only place those materials essential to your course in such a location, and you should remove them at the end of the semester. In all cases, the College should have a legal copy of the material in order for you to make it available under fair use. Other ways of sharing things with your students, such as putting them in a share file that is publicly available, publishing them on the World Wide Web, or sharing materials with students who are not in your course, may be may be subject to potential legal action by copyright holders. We provide a “streaming” service available to secure the access to MP3's that are used for digital reserves and other educational purposes. Streaming does not transmit a copy of the material. It serves out the content in real time, so it provides an extra technological barrier to unauthorized copying. |
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If I share music with my students in
class, they may make copies for their friends. Am I
responsible for this? What are you doing to stop this? |
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Students who get materials as a result of course enrollment, whether they are course packs they purchase from the bookstore, library reserves they copy in the library, or materials on a course Website, have never had the right to make these materials available to others. Your students are responsible for their own compliance with the copyright law. We do, and you should, make them aware that the materials you make available to your class are for purposes of the class only. The same applies if the students have the sophistication to work around the technical obstacles we employ to create limitations on copying. They are responsible for their own compliance with the law. |
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I find this all
very confusing. Aren’t there clear rules that
I can follow for sharing music or other files in
class? |
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Unfortunately there are no clear rules for fair use. Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, applying and balancing the so-called Four Factors. The University of Texas has published a Copyright Crash Course that provides some useful guidance. You can see the section on fair use at:
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm
Bates has had ‘guidelines’ for library reserves and course packs for some time. We provide guidance regarding best practices for online digital materials, but the law and best practices are changing rapidly. See:
http://www.bates.edu/ils/policies/copyrightGUIDELINES.html
These guidelines define our best efforts to provide a good faith solution to promote the fair use of copyrighted materials. These guidelines are not a substitute for the law, but can guide practice on campus. |
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I have several computers
in my research labs that are assigned to me but that
are open to students. Does the college expect me to
take responsibility for my students' computer use while
they are using computers in my research lab? |
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The basic principle at stake is that each person, students included, is individually accountable for his or her behavior. If your lab machines were identified as hosting illegal file sharing we would expect you to help us investigate it and correct the problem. Depending on the nature of the activity, we might also ask for your help in identifying who was responsible. The College could conceivably be construed as being liable for a file sharing program installed on one of our computer lab machines. We want to take the steps we can take to keep the College’s risk to a minimum. |
