Your actions have consequences. Copyright infringement is against the law.

What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property is defined by the US Patent and Trademark Office as:

"Creations of the mind - creative works or ideas embodied in a form that can be shared or can enable others to recreate, emulate, or manufacture them."

These works are generally split into two categories: industrial and copyright. Industrial property is covered by patents, trademarks and trade secret laws, although some types also fall under copyright law. Copyright covers most artistic works including, but not limited to: music, films, novels, photographs, architectural designs and software.

What is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law by President Clinton in October of 1998. It enacts higher penalties for the use of the internet for copyright infringement. It also made copyrights signficantly stronger from the perspective of the copyright holder.

What are DMCA notices?

DMCA or copyright infringment notices are warnings from copyright holders and their attorneys. These copyright holders have identified computers on the University network as having potentially violated the DMCA and issue warnings regarding the particular infringement to the University. As the internet service provider for these users, the University simply identifies the user by NetID and passes the warning along via e-mail.

Be aware that these notices are warnings and generally are not notifications of legal action. However, copyright holders have the right to pursue legal action, and do not waive that right when issuing you a warning.

What happens if I get a DMCA notice?

If you have received a DMCA notice than ISS administrators have determined that a computer associated with your NetID has been listed in a copyright infringment notice.

The warning is for distributing copyrighted works over the network. This primarily occurs when individuals make use of file-sharing programs (LimeWire, BearShare, BitTorrent, etc). By default these programs share your files across the internet for other users to download. As such, just having these programs installed and running can allow outside individuals access to your files. If a user downloads a work from you that is covered by copyright, than you are liable for the penalties associated with the distribution of that work

What is the Top Talker List?

Excessive bandwidth use, the amount of data transferred to and from a particular computer, costs the University a substantial amount of money. For this reason, ISS administrators generate a weekly list of the computers using the most bandwidth on the University network. Administrators simply look at the amount of bandwidth used, they do not monitor the actual content of the data being transferred

Normal usage of the network for valid purposes should not cause a computer to appear on the list. Personal computers that appear on this list almost always are transferring massive amounts of information in the form of media files. This is often due to file-sharing programs, although has also been linked to systems compromised by viruses.

What happens if I get a Top Talker notification?

An appearance on the Top Talker list is not something to be taken lightly. Each appearance on the list is added to your record and successive infractions are considered to be more severe.

• First appearance: a formal warning is sent to your GWMail account.
• Second appearance: a final formal warning is issued to your GWMail account
• Third appearance: your connection is turned off until your machine has been analyzed by an ISS Student Technology Services technician. This is to ensure that your computer is free of both file-sharing programs as well as malicious viruses and spyware
• Fourth appearance: your connection is turned off and your information is forwarded to Student Judicial Services for disciplinary action. Disciplinary action can include temporary or even permanant loss of ResNet connectivity.

Can I use file-sharing programs?

While there are some legal uses of file-sharing programs, using any peer-to-peer file-sharing software such as KaZaA, Morpheus, Limewire or Bearshare to download OR to upload copyrighted materials - such as music, movies, software, games - is against federal law and GW policy. Violators are subject to warnings, temporary or permanent loss of ResNet connectivity or other University-supplied Internet connection, University judicial action, and external lawsuits.

GW monitors network traffic and has systems in place to enforce policies and monitor resources. If an individual violates the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) or the GW policies that govern computing, the University proceeds with a set of escalating steps that start with a warning, include University judicial action as well as temporary or permanent loss of the violator's ResNet connection or other University-supplied Internet connection.

In addition, computing at GW is governed by the Code of Conduct for Users of Computing Systems and Services and, in the residence halls, the ResNet Code of Conduct.

What are the consequences of downloading copyrighted files from the internet?

A few of the negative results of using peer-to-peer technology (P2P) and pirating copyrighted material are:

• GW students have been sued by record companies and copyright holders. Settlement for music copyright lawsuits have cost students and their families thousands of dollars.
• You put your own security at risk: All files in the folder designated for P2P usage are accessible to anyone that has access to the folder. These could include your e-mail files and personal documents.
• Destructive worms and viruses can be introduced on your computer through P2P usage and can harm other components on the GW network.
• Files can be wrapped and disguised as MP3's that contain illegal information and can be used to steal information from your computer.
• Lesser-known and up-and-coming artists suffer loss of revenue in genres such as jazz, classical, and bluegrass.
• When fewer artists are funded, there is less diversity and choice in the marketplace for consumers to choose from.
• Artists and others who dream of being in the music industry face an even smaller chance of being successful when companies don't have the funding to nurture them or employ them.
• Independent record stores have closed, artists have lost avenues of supporting themselves, and CD plant workers and other jobs have been eliminated through the loss of revenue that online piracy has created.

What legal sources are there for downloading files?

There are many important legal sources that students can use to listen to music using their computer. Remember that using a legal service such as iTunes does not protect you from being prosecuted for illegal downloading or uploading with another program.

Also be aware that there are many deceptive services that offer subscription based downloading that are not licensed to provide the files. For a list of sites identified as being illegal please see The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) website For example, LimeWire Pro requires a fee for it's use. However, this fee does not cover the downloading of copyrighted works and does not give you legal rights to download files through LimeWire.

Always review the terms and conditions of any site you use to download files as they may change before this site is updated.