Students accused of illegally sharing copyrighted files could lose their network connections, according to a notice from ITC e-mailed to all students last week.
Upon receipt of a complaint from the entertainment industry, ITC will warn accused students and give them three business days to respond. If there is no response, the students' computers will be disconnected from the University network.
"Under the DMCA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we are serving as the [Internet Service Provider] for the students," said Brian Davis, an S\security and policy specialist with ITC. "When the ISP for a given [IP] address receives one of these notices, we are required to make sure that the material has been taken down."
To get reconnected, a first-time offender must remove the specified illegal files and wait three days. Second-time offenders will be disconnected immediately, and must pay $100 and wait 10 days for reconnection. A third offense results in a $300 fee and 40-day wait.
While the fees may seem steep, Davis said the amount is less than the actual cost to the University.
Students who believe they have been falsely accused may file a counter-notice, but only if they have erased the alleged illegal files from their computer or their network connection has been disabled.
Davis said the agents issuing the complaints are representatives of movie studios, the Recording Industry Association of America and occasionally software companies.
The University has received few complaints this semester.
"We don't know if they're cutting back on the number of the complaints," Davis said, citing recent RIAA lawsuits as a possible reason for the decline. The recording industry may be putting more resources into lawsuits, he added.
According to Davis, ITC's policy last semester was simply to notify students and ask them to take down the files, but it received so many complaints from the entertainment industry that the disconnection policy was put into place this semester.
Student reactions to the new policy were generally negative.
"That [policy] would be bad for me," said first-year College student Justin Hrabec.
A fourth-year student, who declined to give her full name out of concern for legal implications, was wary of potential breaches of privacy.
"Now I feel scared to go online and do anything, because ITC is watching me," she said. "Maybe they could do something that would protect our privacy more."
Evie, another fourth-year who withheld her last name, expressed the same concern.
"I wish I still had my privacy on the network," she said.
First-year College student Chris Belyea said he was skeptical about the fees.
"I think that's pretty excessive," he said. "It doesn't take a lot of work for them to disconnect and reconnect someone."
Others were more sympathetic toward the new policy.
"I really don't care, because I would delete it if they gave me the complaint," said a female first-year who also asked to remain anonymous.
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