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File Sharing Happens - but is it OK?
During the 2006-07 academic year, the RIAA sent approximately twenty-five notifications to members of the Carleton community to cease and desist sharing copyrighted music files. A further twenty-five or so notices were sent from similar organizations representing other industries (e.g. MPAA, BSA, ESA). Most people on campus have heard of file sharing and many even consider themselves expert file sharers. In light of recent moves by the RIAA, it is imperative that the community understands the college policy on file sharing and copyright infringement.
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So What Is It?
In the world of digital file sharing, there exist the Needy, who wish to obtain a file, and the Benevolent, who have a copy of said file and are willing to share. Instead of having to seek one another out and exchange copies directly, they need only make use of a file sharing application. The Benevolent use the application to make their files available to all who are interested, while the Needy use it to search for their files of choice. When matches are made, the software connects them and performs the exchanges. The concept is sound and quite elegant. However, as with so many things, there is plenty of room for abuse, in this case primarily copyright infringement.
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RIAA's Impact on Institutes of Higher Education
Recently, the RIAA initiated a new process for lawsuits against students in an attempt to curb the sharing of copyrighted materials on campuses across the country. For some years now, colleges have been receiving Copyright Infringement Notifications (or "cease and desist" notices) from the RIAA identifying individual examples of illegal file sharing activity on their networks. These notifications ask the colleges to take steps to prevent the individual from continuing to share the specified files otherwise the institution could be held liable for future infringements. These could be considered "good faith" requests and are honored by many if not all institutions as required under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Starting in February 2007, however, the RIAA upped the ante, sending colleges "settlement letters" with the IP address of an alleged offender and requesting that the colleges forward the letters to the individuals associated with the given IP address. The intent of these settlement letters is to give individuals advance notice of the RIAA's intent to file a law suit against them and provide the opportunity to settle the claims prior to suit actually being filed. During the summer of 2007, Carleton received seven such notices.
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How Are Students Identified?
RIAA notices identify the intended recipients - the alleged infringers - by way of the IP address from which the material is being shared. The RIAA then sends the notifications to the service provider responsible for that IP address, in this case, Carleton College. It is then up to the college to reconcile the IP address with the student.
When anyone on campus connects their computer to the network for the first time, they have to step through the registration process. This process registers the machine in that person's name and assigns it a specific IP address. In other words, every IP address issued by Carleton is associated with both a computer (or other networked device) and the person who registered it. It is not possible to register a machine on the college network anonymously. The college uses this association to identify the intended recipients of RIAA notifications.
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What Is Carleton's Policy?
Philosophical and political considerations aside, what is the college's official stance on file sharing?
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R Kevin Chapman
Student Computing Coordinator
kchapman@carleton.edu kchapman@carleton.edu
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Sidebar: Little Known Facts About File Sharing
Those in our community who partake of this popular pastime may be interested in reading through the following section on little known facts about file sharing. This is not intended to discourage file sharing as such, but perhaps prompt a little reconsideration.
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*File Sharing can impede network security and virus detection.
One of the easiest methods that IT departments have of identifying infected machines on the network is to look for machines that are constantly trying to establish large numbers of new connections. With so many file sharing applications trying to do the same thing, the water becomes significantly muddier and such infections are much more difficult to spot.
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Useful Links Regarding File Sharing
Recording Industry Association of America
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Carleton's Community Standards PolicyStudent Computing Knowledge Base Article on File Sharing
Informational Sources for Students
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