When Elon University junior Lindsay Kimble received an email from the university saying she was being sent to Judicial Affairs, now known as Student Conduct, for illegal piracy, she was worried about what steps the administration would take next. She was downloading several songs at a time to put in her iTunes music library using Limewire, a free peer-to-peer file sharing program that was shut down in 2010 after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringement "on a massive scale."
She chose to accept the file sharing charges rather than challenge them. But just when she thought the ordeal was over, she received a letter in her campus mailbox that indicated she had violated Elon's Honor Code, and any future illegal downloads would result in a $1,000 fine for each downloaded song.
"I knew policies on piracy existed, I was just unaware that Elon could see what I was downloading on my personal computer," said Kimble, a former Pendulum staff member. "Now I realize that by using the Elon wireless network I am letting Elon administrators see all the content I use or download from the Internet."
Between 2004 and 2009, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks, and the National Purchase Diary Group (NPD) reports that only 37 percent of music acquired by U.S. consumers in 2009 was paid for, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In February 2011, Frontier Economics estimated Internet users in the United States consumed between $7 billion and $20 billion worth of digitally pirated recorded music in 2008, and a commercial value of $1.4 billion and $2 billion worth of movies in 2005.
The RIAA, which was formed in 1952, is a trade organization that represents recording industry distributors. The organization protects the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of music industry professionals.
Because of the Higher Education Opportunity Act regulations enacted in 2010, all colleges are required to address illegal file sharing through on-campus networks. Universities must take certain precautions to make sure students are aware of the policies against illegal music and content downloading on campus.
Elon University and illegal file sharing: the administrative process
Chris Fulkerson, assistant vice president for technology, is the university's contact for questions and issues regarding illegal file sharing. The policies on illegal content and music downloading are on Elon's website and in the student handbook, he said.
Fulkerson receives notifications of illegal activity from the RIAA and works with Student Conduct to distribute letters to students.
The notifications are automated and Fulkerson said there are typically anywhere from three to 10 in an average week. In previous years, numbers have been as high as 60 to 70.
The RIAA looks at the IP address of the person who has illegally acquired the music and concentrates on downloading rather than uploading, according to Fulkerson. The organization then downloads a copy of the illegal content to get the IP address, which is registered and electronically connected to the university. Fulkerson said after he receives a notification from the RIAA, he goes back and looks up which computer was hooked up to the specific network and address at that time.
"If we didn't take any action the RIAA could come back on us," he said. "There are regulations that say universities must do certain things to curb the illegal downloading of music."
Elon doesn't give the name of the person who downloaded the content to the recording industry unless the industry issues a subpoena.
"Elon doesn't have time to actively monitor it every day, so when the recording industry notifies us we will take time at the beginning of the year," Fulkerson said. "The downloading is going down because people are becoming more aware and there are other ways to get the music and to set your settings so you aren't detected."
Fulkerson said there has been an increase in notices from the RIAA, but that usually happens at the beginning of the year.
"It's not any worse than previous years, it just seems to be worse at the beginning of the year," he said. "The policy is in the handbook, but basically it's the law."
Fulkerson said he usually corresponds with organizations like the RIAA through letters and email, but that procedure differs when the violations become more serious.
"They (the RIAA) sometimes write me when they see a lot of violations by a single person," he said. "They usually say turn that name over to us and we have to have a search warrant."
The university sends letters to students after the RIAA contacts Fulkerson, but not every student who is sharing files illegally will be contacted, he said.
"We don't have time to send a letter for every notice we get, so we pick some at random each time and send them," he said. "Especially when we see two or three violations at once.
Students can get caught when they're sharing music, videos and software. It can be a legal download, but it becomes illegal when you share it with others and you don't own the copyright."
Out of all the downloading programs, the Bitorrent protocol is used the most, according to Fulkerson.
"It can be a lot of programs, though," he said. "They (the RIAA) give us the exact time, they use Greenwich Mean Time, the protocol, the file name and the date of the copyright. They also give us the IP address and we look in the network logs and match it to a username. It even gives us the unique computer address when you're on the Elon network because the IP address is registered to Elon."
Whitney Gregory, coordinator of Student Conduct at Elon, said Student Conduct sends out between 20 and 50 email warning notices to students each semester, and the recipient has to either accept responsibility or set up a hearing on his or her behalf.
The warning remains in a minor disciplinary file until the student graduates, but if a second violation occurs, the situation becomes more serious, she said.
"Based on the situation, it would result in a preliminary punishment that could affect study abroad, leadership or academic standing," Gregory said. "Probation for a year or preliminary suspension are also possible."
Only one or two students a year reach this level of disciplinary action and most Elon students understand the law and that downloading and sharing files like this are illegal. But she said there is often confusion among students as to what constitutes illegal file sharing.
"Downloading music has become relatively inexpensive and convenient, so that's not as much the main issue," Gregory said. "It is the uploading and allowing it to be shared. Often, students don't understand that the default settings on some of the programs allow for uploading from the computer."
Students who violate these policies could have their computer or network services terminated, and risk other university or legal actions.
Senior Ross Rodriguez said he heard about Elon's policies via "word of mouth" and isn't certain where the school's policies are located.
"I would imagine they would be in the student handbook somewhere," he said. "Perhaps we also got a pamphlet about it freshman year."
Rodriguez lives off campus and said he uses music blogs and torrent programs to get music, but also purchases some of it at stores.
"I do still buy music, sometimes at brick and mortar stores but mostly online when I come across sales," he said. "Almost all the music I buy is physical, CDs or vinyl, rarely do I buy digital copies."
Rodriguez said the school for illegal file sharing has never notified him, but he has friends who download music illegally.
"I imagine (friends) do it for the reason almost our entire generation does: it is easy to do, you are unlikely to get in trouble, most do not feel as though they are harming anyone and everyone loves entertainment," Rodriguez said.
UNC Greensboro: following the DMCA, informing students
Joel Dunn, associate vice chancellor of Administrative Systems at UNC Greensboro, said most universities have a similar set of principles when it comes to these policies, but the university provides the information on its website. UNCG takes additional measures to make sure students and faculty are informed, he said.
"We send a letter email the beginning of each semester to remind students to respect concerning the copyrights act and it points them to the webpage," he said. "We also send a similar message to faculty."
Illegal content downloading is not a major issue at UNCG, according to Dunn, but the university still needs to have procedures because of the Higher Education Opportunity Act regulations enacted in 2010.
"We are not seeing a large increase in illegal downloading and we like to think that our ability to get a message out to the student body is helping them to be informed," he said.
The university's policies are available online in the Acceptable Use of Computing and Electronic Resources section of the UNCG policy manual. The manual prohibits the engagement of any activity that is illegal, and includes copyrighted or intellectual property.
Violations of the UNCG policy could result in suspension, termination of access to computer accounts and other university technologies or criminal prosecution, depending on the case.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed by Congress in the late 1990s, and concerns intellectual property, such as copyright, and various types of music. The act also criminalizes the copyright infringement of intellectual works, such as music motion pictures, television shows, software and pictures.
"Each institution is charged with the DMCA to look at methods to combat illegal downloading and we have to be prepared to respond to accusations that might be raised about our policies," Dunn said. "We are not seeing a large increase in illegal downloading we like to think that our ability to get a message out to the student body is helping them to be informed."
UNCG student Brandon Noftle said he doesn't know anything about the university's policies, but knows that a lot of people download music illegally on campus.
"I didn't even know that UNCG had a policy about music downloading," he said. "I know that there are some free streaming musical databases on the music school's website, but I'm not sure if you can download those."
Noftle said he is a firm believer in buying the music he listens to.
"I don't download music illegally, although it is a huge problem and I know that plenty of people do it," he said. "But I have yet to find someone who has been caught. Maybe that is why everyone does it."
Wake Forest: violation reports dropping, punishments stay the same
Todd Edwards, director of IT Infrastructure at Wake Forest University, said the university's illegal downloading policies can be accessed online.
"The DMCA and RIAA copyright violation reports have been dropping over the past three years," he said.
The website provides information to students and faculty members about penalties, alternatives to illegal downloading and campus computing policies. Possible punishments for illegal music downloading are also listed, including losing access to the Wake Forest network, university disciplinary action, and fines of up to $250,000 or jail time.
Wake Forest student Michael Bevan said he is aware the university has policies against illegal downloading.
"I am aware that Wake kind of has an all-inclusive control over what goes on electronically due to the fact that we use WFU- issued laptops and use WFU wireless Internet," he said.
Bevan said he is fairly old- fashioned and simple when it comes to music downloading.
"I think I have barely over 200 songs on my iPod, and they're all either from the iTunes store or CDs at my house," he said. "I'm not too concerned with getting the latest and greatest new songs, so I can't say I'm very knowledgeable of the policies due to not really being 'into' the whole idea of downloading stuff."
Legal alternatives, student realization
Kimble now recommends downloading music from iTunes, or finding another website that offers legal, free downloads. Students who share music illegally through a public, university network also risk transferring viruses to the network.
"I do know that Limewire is a bad idea," she said. "Not only is it incredibly illegal, it's really harmful to your computer and carries a lot of viruses."
The RIAA also provides a list of legal music websites, including Pandora, Zune and Rhapsody. Wake Forest University also offers a link on its website for legal downloading alternatives and UNCG's website provides a link to EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology, on its website.
In the decade since peer-to- peer file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.7 billion, according to the RIAA. With this decrease in music sales comes a drop in musicians' earnings. "People think this isn't hurting anyone, but you're stealing intellectual property from someone," Fulkerson said.