In October 1998, Congress and the President signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The intent of the DMCA is to restrain and eliminate illegal downloads and file sharing – piracy of proprietary content.
The most significant provisions of the DMCA:
- It is a criminal offense to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into software.
- Provided they comply with the statutory requirements, Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), including universities providing bandwidth, internet, and other electronic services to their faculty, students, and staff, are not susceptible to vicarious infringement exposure due to the activity of their users simply by providing the network transmitting the illegal files.
- ISP’s are liable if they have knowledge of infringing downloads and they fail to remove or have the infringing material removed from users’ sites.
P2P file sharing and illegal downloading occur in the university environment since the institutions are generally providing users significant bandwidth distribution for research and scholarship. Because the DMCA requires copyright holders to notify UNCW if a student user has illegally downloaded content, students who utilize their computing privileges to misuse the bandwidth for illegal downloads and file sharing will face:
- The termination of their computing privileges;
- Further university disciplinary action; and/or
- The very real prospect of criminal prosecution by the notifying holder of copyright.
Sharing and/or downloading copyrighted music, videos, and film is both illegal and against UNCW policy. It is critical that students understand the implications of illegal file sharing and downloading are severe, and that they refrain from such activity. The recording and motion picture industries have adopted an increasingly aggressive position in finding and prosecuting individual infringers, particularly in the university setting, for the sole purpose of making an example of impermissible uses and deterring other infringing activities.
Legal and Permissible Downloads for UNCW Students
A highly recommended alternative is for student users to subscribe to a legal downloading service so they can legally and permissibly download digital media and keep themselves safe from prosecution and/or revocation of their Internet & Computing privileges.
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lists many of their approved music downloading services.
DMCA Procedures
UNCW has the following procedures in place to deal with students who are in violation of applicable copyright laws:
- UNCW receives an official complaint about a student’s illegal file sharing or downloading from the RIAA, MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America), or other official organizations.
- UNCW disables the student’s Internet access.
- The student must meet with the Office of the Dean of Students, discuss the violation and remove the infringing content.
- Once the student has removed the infringing content and contacted the Office of the Dean of Students, his or her Internet access is reestablished.
- The student is given a written warning, and a disciplinary record is created.
- If there is a second violation, the university will seek formal judicial action, and more severe sanctions will apply.
- A second violation could result in permanent disabling of the student’s Internet access, and further University disciplinary action(s).
UNCW expects all users of its system to comply with applicable copyright laws. For more information on our copyright stance, go to: http://www.uncw.edu/www/copyright.html
In accordance with the DMCA, UNCW has designated an agent to receive notification of alleged copyright infringement occurring on Web pages or computer servers. If you believe that your copyrighted work is being infringed on a UNCW site, please notify our designated agent, preferably by e-mail at:
Administrator: Zachery Mitchum
E-Mail: itsec@uncw.edu
Phone: 910-962-3047
Fax: 910-962-7942
Campus mail box: #5619
U.S. Mail: UNC Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403
