UW-Madison encourages copyright compliance

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is again reminding students, faculty and staff to respect music and movie copyrights and to be aware of campus policies governing appropriate use of computer resources.

“Unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted works is illegal in many circumstances, and a violation of the university’s Appropriate Use Policy,” says interim chief information officer and Division of Information Technology director Ken Frazier. “If UW–Madison is given cause to believe that a student, faculty or staff network user may have infringed on copyrights, it will take action.”

As part of the university’s ongoing efforts to combat illegal or inappropriate file-sharing, should the university receive a subpoena, it may suspend the network access of a campus user until the matter is resolved. The Offices of the Dean of Students (for students) or school, college or unit supervisors (for employees) will be notified and other disciplinary action may be taken, as appropriate.

A reminder of campus policies was e-mailed to all campus network users on March 16.

Across the country, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been threatening lawsuits against college students who may have engaged in illegal file sharing.

Recently, UW–Madison and other universities have been notified that they will receive “pre-litigation” settlement letters from the RIAA that are to be passed on to individuals whom the industry believes to be guilty of copyright infringement. The letters contain an offer from the RIAA to settle with an alleged infringer before it files a lawsuit.

Consistent with current network management procedures and understanding of federal law, UW–Madison does not plan to forward letters it receives directly to campus network users. The university will instruct the RIAA not to send settlement letters to the university for distribution.

However, the university will disclose a student’s identity in response to a valid subpoena issued by a court of law. A valid subpoena supersedes federal privacy laws, which protect the identity of student campus network users.

“The university feels strongly that intellectual property should be protected, but it is not an appropriate role for us to serve as an extension of the legal staff of industry groups,” Frazier adds. “We will, of course, continue to comply with a valid subpoena.”

Outside of a subpoena, the university is also required by law to respond to “Cease and Desist” complaints associated with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In those cases, when complaints are received about an identified student, faculty or staff member who has allegedly infringed upon the copyrighted work of another copyright holder, DoIT investigates and takes appropriate action.

Several years ago, increased traffic in shared music files was blamed for slowdowns in UW–Madison computer networks, Frazier says. The increase prompted the university to take steps to ensure that research and instructional activities were not affected.

“By now, all students are aware that efforts to download music and movies are being watched carefully by the RIAA and that music and movies are protected by copyright law,” he says. “I want to take this occasion to again remind students of the copyright law and what is at stake. Every student needs to obey these laws and abide by the university’s appropriate use policies.”