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Home > NSIT Policies > November 2007 File Sharing Memorandum

File Sharing Policy

File Sharing Policy Home | March 2007 Memorandum | November 2007 Memorando

November 2007 Memorandum from the Vice President and Chief Information Officer to the Campus

In November of 2007, University of Chicago Vice President and Chief Information Officer Greg Jackson sent this follow-up message regarding use of copyrighted materials to the University community:

 

Greg Jackson
Vice President & Chief Information Officer

Date: Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:57 AM
To: University Community
Subject: Online copyright infringement, DMCA, and University policy

As I remind the community each year, the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) forbids copying and distributing copyrighted materials without a license or permission from the copyright holder. Violations can have serious consequences, including substantial financial settlements or lawsuits.

These consequences are no longer hypothetical: This year individuals in our community already have been sued by copyright owners and/or have settled with them for thousands of dollars. In the case of lawsuits, the University complies with valid subpoenas requesting alleged offenders' identities. As I'm sure you've seen in the news, copyright holders have become very aggressive in pursuing violators.

I therefore strongly encourage you not to use peer-to-peer (p2p) software to share music, movies, software, or other copyrighted materials online that you do not own or are not authorized to redistribute. If you insist on taking this risk, you should not do it on the University's network. In addition to the financial consequences I mentioned above, illegal sharing is a violation of University policy, and can have disciplinary or financial consequences.

We provide extensive guidance on safe computing at http://safecomputing.uchicago.edu. Specific information about file sharing is at http://nsit.uchicago.edu/policies/filesharing/. If you need further assistance making sure that you are not using peer-to-peer software illegally, NSIT Support can help: call 4-TECH or write support@uchicago.edu.