The University’s Network Services turned off Internet connections to 136 student ports last week for violations of the federal copyright infringement law.
Network Services, the department that controls the University’s access to the Internet, said students living in University residence halls were using peer-to-peer, file-sharing applications to download movies and music. The applications that students used, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, enabled other Internet users to upload students’ files.
“It’s not as big of a problem for the University if a student downloads material for personal use,” Network Services director Dale Smith said. “The problem occurs for the University when students use these software applications to share their files with potentially thousands or millions of users on the Internet.”
The University’s acceptable use policy states that “copying proprietary software is theft and will not be tolerated on campus. Illegally copied software subjects the University to risk of litigation and denies software authors the compensation they deserve.”
Smith said he has seen a marked increase in violations of federal copyright infringement law in the past school year.
The University has measures for locating and punishing students for violating copyright infringement law, Smith said. Network Services can check its database and find the top 50 bandwidth users. Those users’ files are then reviewed for file-sharing software as well as movie and music files. If illegal files are found, Smith said, the student’s computer port is disconnected.
Each student found violating copyright laws is then instructed to make an appointment with the Office of Student Conduct, where students are informed they have broken a federal law.
“We have 70-80 cases so far with this violation,” Judicial Affairs Program secretary Brenda Tuomi said. “Our goal is to educate students on the acceptable use policy — not to punish them.”
Each case is handled individually. As a consequence of this violation, students can be given a warning or be given community service, Tuomi said.
After meeting with the Office of Student Conduct, students can have their computer ports turned on again. However, students are warned that if another violation occurs, computer ports will be turned off for the rest of the year, said Norm Myers, Computing Services coordinator for the residence halls.
Myers said problems can arise in residence halls because if one occupant of a room violates copyright law, both of the room’s computer ports are turned off, regardless of who is at fault. Once the guilty party is informed, the other port in the room is reconnected as soon as possible, said Myers.
Courtney Warner, a freshman in Bean Hall, is angry about having her computer port turned off.
“It would have been better if someone would have told us that what we were doing was wrong. A whole week without the Internet is not easy to deal with,” she said.
She said she learned about Kazaa and Morpheus in Stall Talk, a publication posted in residence hall bathrooms that is published by Learning Communities.
Both Warner and her roommate had their ports turned off last Friday and are awaiting appointments with the Office of Student Conduct.
Myers said because of the high number of student violators, Internet reconnection may take nearly a week.
Last Thursday, posters were put up in residence halls warning students that their ports could be turned off if they use software such as Kazaa and Morpheus and allow users to upload copyright files from their computer.
“The safest way to take care of this problem for students affected is to delete the programs,” Myers said. “Students can also disable file sharing on the application. We are available to assist anyone who needs help.”
Network Services has said this is a copyright issue and not a bandwidth issue, but Computing Center personnel have acknowledged that downloading music and movies slows the system because the Internet is a shared resource.