April 16, 2007
To: Williams Staff
From: Dinny Taylor, Chief Technology Officer and Martha Tetrault, Director of Human Resources
Subject: RISKS INCREASE DRAMATICALLY FOR ILLEGAL ELECTRONIC FILE SHARING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
It is important that everyone on campus understand recent developments in the legal efforts taken by holders of the copyright on digital material and Williams' response. New actions by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other associations representing copyright holders may cost you thousands of dollars the first time you are caught sharing files illegally.
The sharing of copyrighted material violates the College's standards of Computing Ethics and Responsibilities (http://oit.williams.edu/w/?u=docs/Computing+Ethics+and+Responsibilities ). At no time should College staff be sharing files illegally or have Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing programs on their computers. These activities violate College policy and individuals are legally responsible for any consequences of their misuse of College resources. If the College receives information about a staff person's illegal file sharing, we will inform your supervisor and department head. Under Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) law, anyone cited for sharing files illegally must also report that he or she has removed or blocked access to the relevant file(s) to Dinny Taylor, who currently serves as the DMCA agent for the College.
The College does not scan the network for illegal traffic in copyrighted material and cannot protect you from the legal recourse that exists for copyright holders, who do scan the Internet. The best way to protect yourself from potentially expensive legal complications is to not download and serve music, TV shows, movies, or software, which you have not acquired with permission to share legally. Although P2P programs allow you to obtain copyrighted song and video materials easily, when you download the P2P software, it will typically then use your computer and the campus network to serve these materials out to others without informing you. Even if serving these materials is not your intention, doing so places both you and the College at risk. You should remove any file sharing programs from your computer. If you need help, call 4090 or email desktop@williams.edu.
We receive claims regularly from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other associations representing copyright holders such as HBO, Universal Studios, the Business Software Alliance, and the Entertainment Software Association. The frequency of these claims has increased significantly in the past three months. The RIAA has recently raised the stakes by sending to colleges and universities letters that threaten to sue people using these programs for alleged file sharing infringement. They request that the school forward to the file-sharing person a proposal to settle out of court by paying a fine within 20 days. See a sample settlement letter at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD4832.pdf. You can also learn more from the FAQ from the RIAA at www.p2plawsuits.com . Williams has already received nine of these early settlement letters, which we have passed on to the alleged infringers and suggested that they seek independent legal counsel.
If the RIAA or another agency sends the College a letter threatening to sue you along with a settlement offer, we will forward that letter to you. While we are not obligated by law to inform you of this notification, at this time we believe that we should so that you can make a more fully informed decision on what to do. The College will not provide you with legal help or advice in this process so, if you receive such a letter, you might wish to contact an attorney for assistance about how to respond. If the College is served with a legal subpoena to reveal your name as a suspected infringer, the College must comply. The RIAA is just as likely to take this action for a first offense as for later ones. In the past, you merely had to block access to a file to comply after a first offense unless we received a subpoena. While this still may be the case in some instances, now with the new initiative by the entertainment industry, you may face legal and financial decisions the first time you are caught sharing material, even inadvertently.
For more information see our new website that details how we handle DMCA infractions at http://wiki.williams.edu/display/docs/File+Sharing+and+Copyright+Violations .
Please contact us or call the help desk at 4090 if you have questions.
