More anti-copyright infringement laws went into effect this month to get universities involved in discouraging illegal downloads on campus.The regulations come from a provision of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which officially went into effect on July 1.
The law outlines steps for colleges to take to prevent illegal downloads on campus, including “disciplinary actions that are taken against students who engage in unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials using the institution’s information technology system.”The new on-campus copyright infringement regulations are a small part of the HEOA, said John Borne, chief IT security and policy officer.
“It’s really a student financial aid piece of legislation, but they tacked on some of these other requirements,” Borne said.
The copyright infringement regulations in the HEOA require universities to do four things, according to Borne.
Colleges are required to complete “annual disclosures” to students to let them know sharing copyrighted information is illegal, have a plan for effectively combating illegal downloads, offer alternatives to illegally downloading materials and periodically review these practices to ensure they are effective.
Borne said the University’s Information Technology Services department is in compliance with all four of the measures and offers information on its website about legal alternatives where students can pay for downloads.
Though the copyright infringement portion of the HEOA only became effective this month, the University already had a program to combat illegal downloads under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The University is registered with U.S. Copyright Office, which Borne said acts as a “clearinghouse for information” when organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, want to contact the University regarding illegal downloading activity.”There’s a lot of these intellectual property companies,” Borne said. “They have systems that detect [illegal downloads]. They turn around and say, ‘We found something at LSU,’ go to the U.S. Copyright Office and ask, ‘What’s the contact information to report that at LSU?'”
Once the University has been made aware of the activity, ITS attempts to contact the student. Often the student’s name is passed to his or her residence hall and that student loses access to the University network, Borne said.When the student is contacted, the copyright infringing material is deleted from the student’s computer, and he or she must sign an agreement to say they understand what they did was a violation as well as pay a $50 fee.The $50 fee is put into the ITS budget and used to offset the cost of personnel and technology involved in dealing with the incident, Borne said.
For repeat offenders, Borne said the program has established an “escalating level of punitive action.”For a second offense, the student receives the same punishment, but information about the incident is sent to the Dean of Students. For a third offense, students’ network connection is not unblocked until the Dean of Students approves it.Borne said the University’s program doesn’t deal with legal implications of copyright infringement, but fulfills the University’s requirements under the HEOA and DMCA.”We’re required to take steps to remove copyrighted information that is being hosted in the network,” he said. “That’s all we’re required to do as a University.”The University’s $50 fee and punitive system does not absolve students from future litigation if the RIAA or a similar organization decides the violation is significant enough to pursue, which could lead to substantial fines, Borne said.
“It can be just a few hundred dollars or tens of thousands of dollars,” he said. “It depends on what the company decides.”–Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]