UC Davis Information & Educational Technology

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New Law Clarifies Copyright Infringement

Posted on February 16, 2005

You just finished your third essay of the evening, cramming Shakespeare into every empty crevice of your noggin, and all you want to do now is listen to that Pink Floyd album you got off BitTorrent yesterday. For good karma, you leave it in your downloads folder so someone else can pick it up, thinking to yourself, "I know it's illegal to share copyrighted music, but nobody will know."
In fact, people are watching what happens on the Internet, especially companies trying to protect their musicians.
You should be aware that a recently-enacted California law now makes sharing copyrighted files riskier than ever. Anyone sending copyrighted material to more than ten people without disclosing her email address and the name of the file risks a fine and/or jail time under California law-and this is in addition to existing federal and civil penalties.
The new law is unique in that it designates specific penalties for both adults and minors, which reminds us that file-sharing is a crime in which all age groups are participating. It might seem like your actions on the Internet go unnoticed, but-in the past few years alone-the university has received over five hundred complaints from copyright owners regarding campus individuals using UCD Internet connections to share copyrighted material. The campus monitors its network, and if you are caught sharing copyrighted files, your Internet privileges may be revoked under the campus Acceptable Use Policy.
The stakes are rising because copyright owners are spending money to find out who is illegally sharing copyrighted material so they can recover their lost profits from the infringers. It is important that everyone be aware of the great risks involved with copyright infringement. "The potential costs just aren't worth it," as Jan Carmikle Dwyer, the campus "Designated Agent" for Digital Millennium Copyright Act notifications, points out.
Vast as the Internet may seem, it is hard-if not impossible-to maintain anonymity. While the campus respects individual privacy, as is consistent with university policy, Dwyer warns students that, "The Internet is not anonymous; all traffic through the campus network is logged and tracked."

Other Options
If, like most people, you share files to get files, copyright law doesn't mean the end of free music. There are plenty of ways to get it legally.
If buying music simply isn't possible given your college-student budget, there are still great options. A number of Internet Radio stations, for example, are completely legal. Launchcast.com is a great website that allows you to watch new and popular music video, and you can stream music from genres you select. More eclectic than LAUNCH is website www.live365.com, which offers free exposure to new music and, unlike traditional radio, won't play the same songs over and over again.
If you have a little money to spare and don't mind digging into that wallet to support your favorite musicians, there are some affordable ways to download music. For example, you can avoid spending $20.00 on an album containing only one good song. Buy just that song for $1.00 through Napster, iTunes, or MusicMatch. There are also a number of monthly subscription services that allow you to stream music to your heart's content and, for as little as ten cents per song, you can burn a CD with all of your favorites combined on those flashy Frisbees.
Granted, some of these options do cost a little bit of cash; but hey, just imagine how many songs you could purchase for the price of a lawyer and a $12,000 settlement with the RIAA.
And remember, it's every bit as illegal to share your files with a wide audience as it is to download files others have made available; California Penal Code Section 653aa makes that perfectly clear.
If you want to know more about legal file-sharing options, see the Bits and Bytes article "Be a Sharer, Not a Pirate," and if you'd like to read the new California copyright law, visit www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=639-653.1.

This column is provided to you by the student writers of Information and Educational Technology. For questions and comments, please contact ietpubsjr@ucdavis.edu.

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