Jammie Thomas, a 32 year old Minnesota woman was the first, and hopefully the last, to fight illegal file-sharing charges in court. At a rate of $9,250 per song, according to BBC News Thomas was ordered by the jury to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online at a grand total of...$222,000.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst's Office of Information Technologies Copyright Infringment as the unlawful use of any material protected under copyright law, violating one or more of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights. OIT also warns, downloading and sharing files which contain copyrighted material is against the law. A single unauthorized download or upload of copyrighted material can put you at serious risk for criminal consequences such as fines and imprisonment. The responsibility to restrict sharing and monitor the legality of your downloads lies solely with you.
In order to avoid Thomas' current situation-copyright violation, OIT recommends the following:
- Download all music, movie and other types of files from authorized sites.
- Turn off file sharing in your peer-to-peer application.
- Keep your computer password protected and never share your OIT account information with anyone.
- Do not connect personal wireless routers to the campus network.
To read the full BBC News story, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment