Industries that rely heavily on the creation and sale of digital materials - like record companies, movie studios, and software vendors - monitor the Internet aggressively to detect and prosecute violations of their copyrights. When one of these agencies discovers what it believes to be a copyright infringement by a computer on the U.Va. network, it triggers the following chain of events:
- The agency sends a violation notice to the University administration. (See a sample violation notice)
- The University asks ITC to locate the computer specified in the alleged violation, determine who owns or is responsible for that machine, and send that person a copy of the notice. Just for illustration purposes, let's say that person is you.
- If you have previously received permission for your computer to reside outside the dormitory firewall, that permission is rescinded.
- If it's the first time you've been cited for a violation, then you must search for and delete any files on your computer that match the file name(s) specified in the complaint, and notify ITC within three business days that the material has been deleted.
- To look for specific files, Windows users should click on Start, then Search, then Find Files and Folders, and key in the file name. Mac users should click on Find... from the File menu of Finder. If you need help, you can contact the ITC Help Desk at 4-3731.
- If you don't reply back within three business days, ITC will disconnect your machine from the University network. In that case, ITC will reconnect you to the network three more business days after we hear back from you that the files have been removed from your computer. The reconnect fee is waived for first-time incidents.
- If this is not the first time you've been cited, the outcomes are harsher:
- For a second incident, your machine is disconnected from the network immediately. Ten business days after you notify us that the problem is resolved and pay a $100 reconnect fee, your network access is restored.
- The third time you are cited, you are disconnected immediately from the network. You are not eligible for reconnection until forty days after you inform ITC that you have removed the specified files from your computer, and pay a triple reconnection fee ($300). You might also be liable for University judicial proceedings.
While it may well be that you were unaware your activity was illegal - or that someone else has used security vulnerabilities in your computer to conduct illegal activity without your knowledge - you are still responsible for how your computer is used, and all the outcomes described above still apply. If you'd like some guidance on how to secure your machine against hackers and other threats, visit our security site at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/security/ and follow the link for users of personal computers.
Can the University protect the identities of individual students from industry representatives?
The University can't protect individuals who, knowingly or not, distribute copyrighted material without an appropriate license. Typically, when industry representatives send a copyright complaint to U.Va., they don't ask us to identify the specific person whose computer hosted the alleged infringement; they just want it stopped. If they do make such a request via a court order, though, the University has no choice but to comply. Individual students have been sued for copyright violations in cases like these.
Counter-notification
If you are certain that you are legally using the material the copyright owner says you are infringing upon, or that the copyright owner has misidentified the material, you can file a counter-notice - after you remove the specified material from your computer or network access to your machine has been disabled.