File
Sharing on the Campus Network
Many
students at Willamette, and at other universities
accross the country, use peer-to-peer (P2P) file
sharing utilities such as Kazaa, Gnutella, iMesh,
and others to download music, movies, and software.
Millions of files are "shared" each day,
many of which contain copyrighted materials.
Downloading
and sharing copyrighted works without prior written
permission from the copyright holder is a criminal
offense . Violators of copyright law could be
subject to felony charges in state or federal court,
and may also be sued by the copyright holder in
civil court. Such civil suits could subject the
violator to liability for infringement with damages
up to $100,000 per work.
In
addition to facilitating criminal activity, P2P
file sharing utilities cause other problems as well:
- File
sharing creates a strain on the campus network,
interfering with other users' ability to use the
Internet and other network resources for legitimate
academic and administrative purposes.
- Many
file sharing utilities receive a continuous stream
of advertisements whenever they are open, degrading
your computer's performance and monopolizing additional
network bandwidth.
- File-sharing
utilities pose a hazard to your privacy and to
the security of files on your computer. Most of
them come bundled with "adware" and
"spyware" applications, which allow
third parties to monitor your Internet usage and
send advertisements to your computer even when
you are not using your file-sharing program.
- Many
files available for download through file sharing
utilities are infected with computer viruses,
and some viruses are designed specifically to
spread through Kazaa and other peer-to-peer networks.
WITS
does not recommend the use of P2P file sharing utilities,
and we cannot help you if you have problems with
them. However, if you choose to use a P2P file sharing
utility on your own, please be aware of the following
information:
