ESU Peer to Peer File Sharing Statement

Emporia State University’s security policies are in place to help not only protect ESU’s information, but to set standards on acceptable computing using ESU’s Internet access. ESU’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) policy states:

“..users of Internet services and equipment provided by ESU are responsible for their compliance with all copyright laws pertaining to information they place on or retrieve from the Internet.”

ESU’s DMCA policy references unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including music, movies, games and software distributed from a computer using peer-to-peer applications. Distributing copyrighted works without explicit permission from the copyright owner is considered theft and is a violation of ESU policy and Federal copyright law. Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject students to civil and criminal liabilities including but not limited to:

1. Fines
2. Attorney fees
3. Court costs
4. Damages
5. Imprisonment

With each peer-to-peer file sharing notification of alleged copyright infringement, ESU is held to a standard to:

1. Identify the computer used during the alleged incident using information given in the notification
2. Remove the computer from the ESU network
3. Notify the computer owner to remove the copyrighted material
4. Verify the copyrighted material is removed prior to allowing the computer back onto the network

If further copyright infringements occur, the computer owner could lose ESU network access permanently.

Last Updated August 11, 2009