Do you use Limewire, BitTorrent, Ares, or any other site to illegally download music, movies or other content? You could face thousands of dollars in fines and potential jail time.
Vice President of Information & Instructional Technology Services (IITS) Dr. Frank Moore explained that what is commonly occurring is peer-to-peer file sharing. "On this laptop they [students] have downloaded a program such as BitTorrent. They turn the software on and it goes out across the Internet," explained Moore.
He used the song "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum as an example. Anyone who has these illegal downloading programs on their computer is connected to a network of other computers with the same program. When a user searches "Need You Now," it will search every other computer with that program downloaded to see who has "Need You Now" and who can get it to the user the fastest.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been cracking down on illegal downloading. They are searching to see who has these types of software installed and when they identity a program they know the music was obtained illegally. If it is found on Longwood's network, they send an email to abuse@longwood.edu.
In 2008, the government passed the Higher Education Opportunities Act. The act outlines how universities should deal with unauthorized file sharing on campus networks. There are three general criteria every university needs to follow. First, all universities need to conduct an annual disclosing of what copyright law is and university policies regarding copyright law.
Second, each university needs to create a plan to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution for the copyright material. The third criterion is creating a plan to offer alternatives to illegally downloading.
Moore explained that the university presents during freshman orientation and sends out an email at the beginning of every year explaining what the issue is. They also have a "packet shaper" on the network, which looks through incoming traffic for illegal sites. When that activity is detected they will throttle down the bandwidth so therefore a song that would normally take two minutes to download will now take up to two days.
When this activity is detected, both the student and the Office of Honor and Judicial Affairs receive a letter. The student will then need to set up a meeting with the Director of Honor and Judicial Affairs Dr. Richard Chassey, to talk about the possible infringement. If the student comes and complies by the date that is included in the letter, then Chassey will send an email clearing them. If they fail to do so, then Internet access to the university's network will be cut off for the student with no further notification.
Both the student and the university could face potential consequences for not complying with federal law. For example, a woman was ordered to pay $1.92 million for illegally downloading 24 songs off the website Kaaza.
Moore explained that his department does not tell the RIAA which student is illegally downloading, but the university can only do so much to protect the students. "We are doing all these things the federal government says we have to do because we are trying to protect the students. The last thing we want to see is a student hauled into federal court in Richmond and suddenly come out with a $250,000 fine," said Moore.
Moore went on to explain that if the students fail to cease illegally downloading, it would put all federal funding for the university at risk. In other words, federally funded programs such as research grants for faculty, federal work-study and federal loans could potentially evaporate.
As long as someone has the program on their computer, they are sharing any songs that have ever been downloaded. As long as you have the software on your computer, you are linked into the "community" and even if you are not actively using the software, your computer is still sharing files. Even if you buy a CD and put it on your laptop, if you have the illegal software, it will share that music illegally across the networks.
Moore advised students to contact their Resident Technology Associate (RTA) and have the software wiped off their computer immediately.
Junior Will Nixon has been working on Xbox issues through the Help Desk, and he explained that they have been experiencing a lot of issues.Junior Chris Cheatham also said he has been experiencing issues with Xbox, specifically getting online.
"The main problem was people were unable to connect to Xbox live with the school network. We went through a series of tests to determine what the problem was. Recently, the Help Desk put a patch on the network and thing got a little better but it still needs a lot more work," explained Nixon.
He added that he was told a firewall connection was changed which blocked some Xbox's and even some laptops from connecting to the university network. Nixon emailed Director of Communications and Technology Services Mark Kendrick to try to fix the connection, but Kendrick couldn't initially locate the issue. Nixon said that certain problems still persist now. Other students have been experiencing Internet and Xbox issues as well.
"I haven't been able to get on Xbox live pretty much at all. The days that I can get on, it's only for like two hours and the connection is very laggy," explained junior Apollos Hill.
"I experience slow Internet often. It will also mess up on me when I try to check my email. It will say 'Internet Explorer stopped working' or 'not responding,' said sophomore Nicole Kavasnicka.
There have been various opinions about whether or not illegally downloading is the root of some other Internet problems on campus. Senior Nathan Cooke said he feels that the university is cutting back on the Internet usage in order to grab a hold of the issue; a measure he does not think is fair.
"I do not think that illegal downloading is directly affecting the Internet at Longwood. However I feel that Longwood is trying to stop illegal downloading by setting up several barriers and firewalls. It is these measures that are actually causing problems for students. While they may stop some illegal downloads, it is causing problems with Xbox systems, wireless Internet, and some models of laptops," said Nixon.
"The school is not really sure what's causing problem. They are making a good effort trying to poke around to see what exactly the problem is," added Nixon.
Students using illegal downloading programs could face prison time in addition to serious fines.