Illegal Downloading

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Many students use peer-to-peer (P2P) programs, such as BitTorrent, Grokster, KaZaA and LimeWire, to download music, movies and software from the Internet. Such activity is typically illegal.

U.S. Copyright Law grants certain exclusive rights of reproduction, adaptation, distribution, performance, display, attribution, and integrity for intellectual property, artistic creations, etc. Works of literature, photographs, music, software (including shareware), film, and video are, as a general rule, copyrighted. Examples of probable violation of copyright laws include, but are not limited to, making unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material (e.g. commercial software, text, graphic images, music CDs, audio/video recordings, and films), or downloading/distributing copyrighted materials over computer networks (via peer-to-peer programs) or through other means.

West Virginia University does not tolerate copyright infringement in any form, including P2P file swapping of copyrighted works. Copyright infringement will result in disciplinary action, including, but not limited to, suspension of your network service.

There are alternatives, such as iTunes and Napster, from which you can legally download music and/or movies for a fee. Please note, there are many alternatives, and we cannot test each one to ensure that it works properly on ResNet. We have verified that iTunes and the pay-for-music version of Napster work properly on ResNet. If you choose to use another service, you do so at your own risk. WVU makes no guarantee that your particular service will work properly on ResNet.

If you choose to use a P2P program, please be aware of the following:

• By default, P2P programs allow other users to consume YOUR bandwidth by downloading files from your computer. We recommend that you disable the program's file sharing capability to prevent this.
• Spyware and other malicious or annoying programs are often installed in the background when you install P2P programs.
• Several viruses now use P2P networks to spread from one computer to another.

Still not convinced? Before you make a final decision, I recommend that you read the article Hidden Lawsuit Troubles on the Internet.