Smith College TechNotes blog

The following is an excerpt from a letter to all Smith students from Herb Nickles, the Director of ITS:

Last semester, the college received notice from an attorney at the RIAA that three complaints are pending against Internet Protocol (IP) addresses connected with computers owned by users of the Smith network.

So, what does this mean? It means that the RIAA recorded (and is pursuing) three separate instances of illegal downloading or uploading of copyrighted material on campus. The RIAA knows that the file transfer happened at Smith because the illegal activity is associated with an IP address that is known to originate from the Smith network. Every time you log onto a network (to use the internet) your computer is assigned an IP address, depending on where you are or when you connect, you could get a different IP address. The RIAA does not know who had the infringing IP address when the copyright violation occurred, but Smith does.

At this point, the college is not legally obligated to provide the RIAA with the name of the person associated with the infringing IP address. However, if the college were to receive a court order requesting the identity of the owner of the computer associated with that IP address, Smith is legally bound to comply. (This has not happened yet.)

Since the first notice from the RIAA, the college has received and forwarded pre-settlement letters to the affected students. (View a sample pre-settlement letter.) The students who receive these letters are given 40 days in which to agree to a settlement. If they choose not to settle, the RIAA has said that they will file suit in federal court. The average settlement is reported to be $3,000 while the minimum damages under copyright law are $750 per copyrighted recording.

If you are concerned that you could become a target of the RIAA’s copyright infringement lawsuits, you should stop sharing copyrighted materials immediately. From TARA: How to disable peer-to-peer file sharing on your computer
It’s also important to know that besides risking a lawsuit, the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material is also a violation of the Smith College Policy on the Acceptable Use of Computer Resources, and a “repeat copyright violation will result in the immediate removal of computer access privileges.”

For more information about the law & Smith policies

• Smith College Acceptable Use Policy
• Smith College Procedures for Notification of Copyright Infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act [pdf]
  
• Copyright Law of the U.S.A.: Copyright Infringement and Remedies
• The RIAA has developed a Web site that answers questions about settling potential lawsuits: http://www.p2plawsuits.com

Further reading

• Tales From the Public Domain: Bound by Law? This free-for-download comic book explains United States copyright law and fair use. [Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Bam! Pow! Footnote!”]
• A User’s Guide to DRM in Online Music [Electronic Frontier Foundation]
• “Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?” by Sean Silverthorn, published by Harvard Business School
• “Naughty Bits” by Stever Worony, published by EDUCAUSE Review — an article on the history of Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• DRM.info — an information platform of organizations and individuals concerned about the direct and collateral damage of DRM
• Apple’s “Thoughts on Music”