From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:18 PM
To: Trinity Students
Subject: RIAA Alert

To all Trinity students:

I am writing to alert you to another round of legal action on the part of the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA).  The RIAA has launched yet a another campaign on college campuses in response to music file-sharing. Trinity has received 10 RIAA or MPAA* “take-down” notices in the past week; 4 of them came yesterday. 

Trinity’s appropriate use policy specifically states that the network may not be used in ways that violate copyright—and it outlines what happens if there is a copyright infringement claim.    If the RIAA (or other entertainment industry groups) detect illegal file-sharing activity at a Trinity IP address, Trinity is required to respond. In the case of a pending lawsuit, Trinity is required to provide the name and contact information of the person involved.  This applies to students, faculty and staff. 

Most important: when Trinity receives a “take down” notice from the RIAA, ITS staff determine which port was involved, and we notify the person and offer information on copyright-related issues. If it happens a second time, that port is disabled for a week. The appropriate use policy clearly states this outcome. It’s never a good time of year to lose network access.

Please be aware that the RIAA (and possibly other branches of the entertainment industry, including providers of movie, television and game content) are focusing on college campuses, and that file sharing is very risky.  An article that appeared last May in the Chronicle of Higher Education outlined the methods the industry uses for detecting “sharable” files. If you are using LimeWire, Gnutella, BitTorrent, BearShare or others, your files—even those you have legally purchased—may be visible on the web. For the RIAA, that constitutes illegal distribution.

For more on this issue, including a sample “take down” notice, click here:

http://iraa.trinity.edu/iraa/x117.xml 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Diane Graves, Copyright officer

*Motion Picture Association of America

Diane J. Graves

University Librarian and Professor

Coates Library

Trinity University

One Trinity Place

San Antonio, TX 78212

ph: 210-999-8166

fax: 210-999-8182

mobile: 210-528-0442