Copying and sharing copyrighted materials without permission of the
copyright owner is a violation of federal law. To comply with the law and
to protect yourself from possible litigation, we strongly encourage you to remove illegally obtained copyrighted material from your computer, and to stop downloading copyrighted material illegally if you do so now.
As you may know, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and some other copyright owners and groups have recently stepped up their efforts to curb illegal file sharing on the Internet. This academic year, the University has received a much larger volume of complaints about peer-to-peer file sharing than in previous years. In addition, the RIAA is sending "early settlement" letters (see below) to colleges around the country as part of its new anti-theft campaign announced in January; see press release at: http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/032107.asp
This is an opportune time to remind you of relevant policies and practices at UC Santa Cruz.
DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) "take-down" notices: Federal law requires that the University take action when it is notified that someone on its network is distributing copyrighted materials without permission. Whether you are aware of the violation or not, if UC Santa Cruz's DMCA agent receives a "takedown notice" alleging that your computer is distributing copyrighted material without permission, the University follows established policy enforcement procedures, see: http://resnet.ucsc.edu/besmart/filesharing/ http://security.ucsc.edu/policies/dmca.shtml
Early Settlement Letters:
As a courtesy, the University of California has agreed to forward "early settlement" letters to students on the campus network who the RIAA alleges have shared copyrighted material illegally. The University will send a cover letter along with the RIAA early settlement letter to the student's campus email address, as well as to his/her permanent address. Unless served with a lawfully issued subpoena, UC Santa Cruz will NOT release the name of the user to the content owner or RIAA.
By forwarding the early settlement letters to students, the University of California has made no determination that those students should enter into an early settlement with the copyright holder. It is solely the student's personal decision whether to avail himself or herself of the "early settlement" procedure proposed by the RIAA.
Legal downloading:
UC Santa Cruz supports and encourages the legal downloading of music, movies, and software. To find out more about these campus programs, please visit: http://resnet.ucsc.edu/besmart/filesharing/ and
http://resnet.ucsc.edu/music-sources.php
We will continue our vigorous education efforts in this area, but ultimately the choice is yours. Please take advantage of the information on the web sites listed in this letter
