To: All Faculty & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students
           <everybody@illinois.edu> 
    From: "Provost's Office and CITES" <dkemphue@uiuc.edu>

Reply-To: dkemphue@uiuc.edu
 Subject: MASSMAIL - Copyright Enforcement

As you may have read in the popular press, the Motion Picture Association 
of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) 
among others are increasing their copyright enforcement activities.  As 
part of this increased effort, the RIAA has begun to target college 
students specifically, which means that students who engage in unlawful 
peer-to-peer file sharing are more likely than ever to be identified and 
sued by the RIAA.  

We think that these increased enforcement activities warrant taking a 
moment to discuss the relevant policies and practices at the Urbana-
Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. 

The University does not condone the use of peer-to-peer software for 
illegal file sharing. Those who engage in it violate U.S. Copyright laws 
as well as the campus's own policies, including the Student Code and 
Policy on the Appropriate Use of the Computer Network. Additionally the 
University bears significant costs associated with responding to DMCA 
violation notices and the network capacity absorbed by file sharing 
reduces its availability for general research, teaching, and 
administrative purposes.   For additional information of University 
related copyright issues, see 
http://www.cio.uiuc.edu/policies/copyright/copyright.html. 

Often the software used for the purposes of illegal file sharing comes 
bundled with 'spyware' and other software that maliciously captures 
personal information that contributes to identity theft. You can learn 
more about protecting yourself from identity theft by reviewing the 
information at http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/security/index.html. Further, 
some file sharing programs, even when used for legitimate purposes, will 
use your computer to transfer illegally obtained material between other 
users. I strongly encourage you to remove software used for file sharing 
as well as to immediately remove any illegally obtained material such as 
music or movies. 

Students who are found to have illegally obtained copyrighted material 
through the campus network will have their computers immediately removed 
from the network and will not be allowed access to the network until they 
have undergone a disciplinary process with the Dean of Students Office. 
With the announcement by RIAA, MPAA, and others of the intent to target 
college students with law suits, it should be noted that many of the 
students sued have settled out of court for amounts on the order of $4-
5000. 

In addition to information on our own security website, both the 
University of Michigan and Chicago provide excellent information on 
disabling peer to peer programs, see 

http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/security/filesharing/index.html 
http://security.uchicago.edu/guidelines/peer-to-peer/ 
http://www.copyright.umich.edu 

We are both legally and ethically obligated to respond to every 
notification of copyright violation we receive.  I fully believe members 
of the UIUC campus community will recognize the seriousness of this 
situation and respond accordingly. 

Linda Katehi, Provost
Paula Kaufman, Interim Chief Information Office

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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