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Copyright? Then copy wrong The heat’s on you to comply, so comply by George Spain CCIT Technical Publisher If you make copyrighted music, movies, photos, or computer programs available on your computer that others can download, you could make some Hollywood heavies boiling mad and wind up in hot water. Under provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copyright infringements can tie MUSC in a legal knot and put you in violation of MUSC’s ethical standards, as defined in its Computer Use Policy. Background Under the DMCA, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), as long as it meets some specific conditions, cannot be held legally responsible for copyright infringements committed by the users of its network. Here’s how it works. If a copyright holder believes that an infringement is occurring on an ISP’s network, then it must provide the ISP with a formal notice of the claimed infringement. The ISP must then promptly remove the infringing material from its network and notify the user who violated the copyright. A repeat violation could lead both the ISP and the user to the courtroom. Here’s what recently happened According to Richard Gadsden, director of Computer and Network Security in CCIT, in the past month alone MUSC has received two notices of claimed infringement. One from The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the other from the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Along with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), these are the organizations which are the most likely to file complaints. The law requires an ISP to designate a person that a copyright holder can contact regarding an alleged violation. At MUSC, that person is C. Frank Starmer, Ph.D., associate provost for information technology. That person must then investigate the complaint and take action if warranted. The MPAA objected to an MUSC user who shared movies (including Star Trek: First Contact and Star Wars: Episode 1, among others) via the peer-to-peer service known as gnutella. In short, the MUSC user turned his computer into a server from which others on the gnutella network could download the movies. The notice from the BSA objected to another user sharing several copyrighted programs including Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office XP, and others. By placing these programs in a shared directory accessible to the public, the user had violated the DMCA. In both of these cases, Gadsden said, the infringement claims were justified, and could not be defended on academic grounds. Therefore, the material was taken down as required by the DMCA, and the appropriate administrators were notified. Although there’s been no notice as of this writing of any music violations, it’s not a stretch to imagine something like that coming down the road. Copyrighted music (a major protector of which is the RIAA), usually in the form of MP3 files, also falls under the DMCA. Think of it like this. If you use MUSC’s network to illegally “share” copyrighted material with other people, then you have violated the DMCA. If notified of any such violation, MUSC, in its role as your ISP, must take action against you. Under the DMCA, if MUSC fails to take action against you, then MUSC can be held legally liable for your infringement. The DMCA specifies fines of up to $500,000 for a first offense, and up to $1,000,000 for a second offense. These are pricey violations and obviously, MUSC has an interest in avoiding any such liability. Gadsden warns, “Stop and think. Recognize that some copyright holders have a very strong financial incentive to protect their copyrights. They actively seek out violations of their legally granted property rights, and the DMCA gives them a very big stick to go after violators with. “If you are fingered for a copyright infringement under the DMCA, and you used any resources of the MUSC network to engage in the infringing activity, and the infringement was not defensible on academic grounds, then the University must protect itself from any legal fallout from your misbehavior. To that end, if you are caught, you can expect that some form of disciplinary action will be taken against you by the university.” Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.