Although students who download files illegally are not pirates in the Caribbean sense, ASU does take a strong stance against virtual looting.
Technology news website CNET.com recently published a report that added to the list of consequences for pirating materials. The report was published Friday and highlights how the Copyright Enforcement Group in California allegedly supports referring infringement cases to debt collectors even before a judgment has been rendered in court.
This strategy targets defendants who refuse to settle outside of court with copyright owners and desire a court judgment on the matter. Typically, copyright owners contact the accused party and ask to settle for between $1,000 and $2,000, according to the report.
The Copyright Enforcement Group’s policy could cause additional hassles for accused infringers because they would have to deal with the debt collectors and their often-aggressive strategies.
ASU prohibits copyright infringement, which is the practice of downloading or uploading copyrighted material without permission, according to ASU’s Academic Affairs Manual.
“Piracy is making copies of copyrighted materials without permission,” said Benjamin Tietgen, a patent attorney for Etherton Law Group, LLC in Tempe. Tietgen graduated from ASU in 2007 with a law degree.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act, passed in 2008, provides guidelines on how schools educate students on the issue of piracy and the consequences associated with it.
“We are required by federal law to do certain things,” said Jeni Li, technology support analyst principal for ASU’s University Technology Office.
ASU must notify students of anti-piracy laws, establish technology deterrents, review the plan to determine its effectiveness and provide a list of legal alternatives to piracy, Li said.
ASU employs several methods to track illegal downloading, Li said.
It’s possible to identify specific files that are frequently downloaded illegally, like popular music or movies, and give them a virtual fingerprint. That fingerprint can then be tracked when such files are transferred over the school’s network, Li said.
Another tactic the University uses tracks sites that catalog files for illegal download. If a student searches for a specific file to download, Li said, that search can be tracked by ASU and traced to individual computers, regardless of whether the file has been fingerprinted.
ASU regularly takes away the network privileges of students found downloading files illegally, which means they cannot access the Internet on personal or school computers, Li said.
“It could make it difficult to go about your business at ASU,” she said.
In order to gain back their privileges, students must attend an awareness session on the topic of copyright infringement.
Repeat offenders can receive notations in their disciplinary records, and in extreme situations, their cases can be referred to local law enforcement, Li said.
“I don’t think about the consequences at all,” said exploratory social behavior sciences freshman Xavier Sagun, who has downloaded files illegally in the past.
It’s important to remember that there are legal alternatives to Internet piracy that are also free, like Pandora online radio for music and Hulu for videos, Li said.
“It’s okay to have fun, but be safe,” she said.
Reach the reporter at alex.ferri@asu.edu
