IT department monitors illegal downloading on campus

The "Stop Online Piracy Act" legislation introduced on Oct. 26 contains sweeping new guidelines for the criminal prosecution of online copyright infringements.

The guidelines for what actually constitutes online piracy take into account more than just the evidence of someone illegally downloading copyright material.

According to SOPA, the copyright owner must expect a reasonable commercial distribution of the material, in addition to a minimum financial loss of $1,000.

However, prior to SOPA, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) was already initiating lawsuits against college students for illegal downloads, according to Jerry Wilson, chief technology officer and executive director of the Information Technology department.

The few UCCS students in the past that were caught downloading illegally by the RIAA generally settled out of court for a couple thousand dollars, according to Wilson.

In response to whether or not she was aware of lawsuits brought against students, Mallory Brownfield, a geography major, said, "I'm actually surprised about that…because a lot of people illegally download stuff and don't get caught."

UCCS has also taken disciplinary action against students for violating online copyrights.

The "UCCS Student Code of Conduct Policy" specifically states that the misuse of computer resources includes violating, "third party copyright or patent protection and authorizations."

In addition, UCCS enacted its "Responsible Computing Policy" on May 19, which states that the University reserves the right to report "allegations of illegal activity…to the campus police department for separate investigation."

The University's disciplinary action on first offenders is the loss of computer access, which can be reinstated by talking with Wilson and promising never to do it again, according to Wilson.

A second offense earns the student a disciplinary action in addition to loss of computer access, said Wilson.

Regaining that access now becomes more in-depth, according to Wilson, as the offending student must write a formal letter of apology and submit it for review.

A third offense can result in the permanent loss of computer access and possible expulsion for committing a criminal act, according to the code of conduct.

Even with the threat of past lawsuits and student disciplinary actions for online copyright infringement, Wilson said, "It didn't seem to make that much difference in what goes on in our networks."

Wilson said he doesn't believe that SOPA is going to make much of a difference in combating illegal downloads by UCCS students because "it's been going on for so long."

SOPA does consider online piracy a criminal offense, which further reinforces UCCS' legal obligation to report illegal downloading.

The IT department knows which students are illegally downloading because it receives notices by the RIAA which state the title and nature of the downloaded material, along with the offender's IP address, according to Wilson.

The RIAA is known to monitor peer-to-peer networks with automated software that records the IP addresses of users who attempt to share copyrighted material.

Brownfield said that monitoring of student activities online makes her feel "like they're invading the privacy of students."

Grant Pedersen, game design and development major, said he feels that the IT department should be watching student's internet activities because he knows people that illegally download copyright software.

Wilson said that while the school does have software to monitor the school network, it only measures how much overall bandwidth is being used.

"We don't actually monitor people," said Wilson.

In addition, Wilson confirmed that the IT department does not monitor student web histories or private files on the student network drive.