Copyright infringement is the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material, such as books, music, movies, artwork, photographs, and other types of intellectual property, as such materials are known. Copyright infringement is contrary to GW policy and federal law. The use of University resources to duplicate or distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted materials is strictly prohibited.

Copyright infringement is a growing issue considering the prevalence of "peer-to-peer" file sharing programs like KaZaA, Morpheus, and other similar programs. Unlike the Napster program, which was shut down by a federal court order, these P2P programs do not use central servers and instead allow computers to connect with each other directly giving users access to each other's files.

These direct connections, though, utilize an astounding amount of network bandwith. Multiplied by the number of people at GW illegally downloading large copyrighted files, the amount of data attempting to squeeze through GW's computer networks clogs and overwhelms the system. This results in network-wide slowdowns, hardware failures, and other inconveniences. Loss of e-mail service, shared network drive failures, Internet service interruptions - all these problems can be partly traced to the negative effects of network overload due to illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

P2P programs can also leave a computer vulnerable to use by hackers as a means of masking their activities. By taking over the operation of the target computer, a hacker could assuming a GW community member's electronic identity and launch an attack on other computers.

For more information regarding copyright infringement, please visit the U.S. Copyright Office, which is part of the Library of Congress. And for additional information regarding GW's computing resources, please visit the Information Systems and Services website.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA)
No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act)