Dec. 2006 DMCA Letter to Students
December 2006 Memo Sent To All UCR Students
December 6, 2006
To All University of California Riverside Students:
As the end of the Fall quarter approaches and your use of the campus
network and the Internet increases in anticipation of final exams, it
is extremely important to understand the personal risks associated with
illegal file sharing. Many college students believe unauthorized music
downloading is harmless and don't fully understand the potential
consequences. Illegal Internet downloading of music, games, movies, and
software is a serious issue and can result in costly legal actions and
fines. UCR students must be aware of these risks not only because of
the possibility of campus disciplinary action, but also to protect
against criminal prosecution and the initiation of civil litigation by
copyright holders.
Although trading of copyrighted music, movies, games and software over
the Internet has become commonplace using file-sharing programs such as
Gnutella and eDonkey, it is not legal to do so. Most material is
copyrighted and obtaining or offering such material in violation of the
U.S. copyright law may be punishable with civil and criminal penalties,
including prison time and monetary damages. When copyright holders
resort to legal actions, there is little the University can do to
protect copyright infringers.
Importantly, any file sharing of copyrighted material without
permission is illegal, whether this sharing occurs on the Internet or
on UCR's campus network. If the campus becomes aware of illegal music
and video sharing that takes place anywhere on UCR's network (in the
residence halls, in computer labs, etc.), UCR will stop this activity
and take all appropriate disciplinary action.
Thank you for your attention to this very serious matter. If you have
any questions about these issues or seek additional information, please
visit UCR's DMCA web site at http://dmca.ucr.edu/ or
contact Larry McGrath, Director Computing Support Services for
Computing and Communications at Larry.McGrath@ucr.edu. For additional
information about UCR supported legal file sharing options, please
visit www.cnc.ucr.edu/legal2share .
Charles Rowley
Associate Vice Chancellor
Computing and Communications
University of California, Riverside
P.S. Please let me also announce some new and exciting news relating to
on-line music. As of May 2006, all UCR students are entitled to a
membership providing FREE streaming music over the Internet. Again,
please visit UCR's Legal2Share site for more information about this
service as well as other legal music downloading options (http://cnc.ucr.edu/legal2share ).