To: All UCI Students
From: Manuel N. Gomez, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs
November 2004

Dear UCI Students:

The Internet is a very powerful tool, providing many capabilities and opportunities, both in academic and everyday pursuits. Along with the benefits come challenges and one of the most critical of these is conforming to copyright laws. I am writing today to make sure you are informed of campus policy and to remind you of your obligations as a member of the UCI electronic community.

Though trading of copyrighted music, movies, games and software over the Internet has become commonplace using file-sharing programs such as KaZaa or BitTorrent, it is often not legal to do so.

Making copies of copyrighted materials over the network is generally illegal unless you have the consent of the copyright holder. There are some limited exceptions; however, these exceptions generally do not apply when a person "shares" copyrighted materials with others for entertainment purposes. Copyrighted material includes music, videos, games, movies, text, and software.

UCI abides by the provisions of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires prompt response to claims of copyright infringement by copyright holders or their agents. If you access copyrighted materials without permission, you could lose network access, and/or be subject to UCI disciplinary action. Other consequences may include civil liability and even criminal prosecution.

Some believe that "recreational file-sharing" is unlikely to be noticed. This is not the case. Copyright holders are significantly intensifying enforcement using automated scanning software to identify infringements, no matter how small. In addition, recent legislation imposes serious criminal penalties for "file sharing" copyright violations.

Please be aware that most file sharing programs install themselves with world wide sharing on by default -- this means you could be sharing materials on the world wide web without your knowledge.

To protect your own personal information and the integrity of your computer as well as to comply with copyright laws, you should not install file sharing software unless you configure it properly. It must be configured to share only those materials you have the right to share, such as documents, photos, and music that you create. "Sharing" files on your system without proper attention to what is being "shared" -- and with whom -- can easily allow personal information on your system, or even your entire system, to be used in ways which can have serious consequences for you.

Please review UCI computer and network policy as well as the other references included below.

Manuel N. Gomez
Vice Chancellor Student Affairs

[1] UCI Computer and Network Use Policy http://www.policies.uci.edu/adm/pols/714-18.html
[2] Students' Understanding Copyright Policy at UCI http://eee.uci.edu/help/student/copyright/
[3] Disabling Outward Filesharing (UCI Residential Housing Network): http://resnet.uci.edu/p2p_page1.html
[4] UCI Residential Housing Network Computer Use Policy: MP3 Music, Movies and other Copyrighted Files: http://resnet.uci.edu/connection_policy.html#copyright