To all Students, Faculty and Staff:

We would like to alert you to the increasing personal risks involved with illegal file sharing. As you may have seen in the media, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has subpoenaed the University regarding an alleged case of file sharing. It is important that you understand these personal risks not only because of the possibility of campus disciplinary action, but also to protect against criminal prosecution and the initiation of civil litigation by copyright holders. We would like you to be very aware that initiation of legal actions by copyright holders is becoming more of a reality every day.

Although trading of copyrighted music, movies, games and software over the Internet has become commonplace using file-sharing programs such as KaZaa, Napster, Gnutella, iMesh, CuteMX, Scour, Exchange, Morpheus and FreeNetfile; it may not be legal to do so. Most material is copyrighted and obtaining or offering such material in violation of the U.S. copyright law may be punishable with civil and criminal penalties, including prison time and monetary damages. When copyright holders resort to legal actions, there is little the University will be able to do to protect those who infringe copyright.

You may believe that sharing of copyrighted materials is unlikely to be noticed, but this is not the case. Copyright holders and their agents use automated methods to identify infringements. Even modest sharing may be noticed. In August, the RIAA brought lawsuits against 261 individuals for illegally sharing copyrighted music. Of these, 52 settled during September for amounts ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.

In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), UNC-Chapel Hill expeditiously takes action when notified of potential DMCA violations from computer systems located on the campus network. Incidents are referred to various campus officials, and appropriate actions are taken to stop unauthorized downloading or distribution of copyrighted materials. In some cases, the university may also take disciplinary actions. The UNC-Chapel Hill Guidelines for Compliance are available for online review at http://www.unc.edu/policy/copyinfringe.html.

We also encourage you to consider the information security risk associated with the use of peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Beginning in August of 2003, we have seen an increase in the number of computer viruses introduced via file sharing applications. Additionally, many of these programs share information by default. This can be a significant risk if you store confidential information such as patient records on your computer system. For this reason, individual Schools or units with data requiring high security may have determined that individual users in those units may not use
peer-to-peer file sharing applications.

Of course, there are legitimate uses for file-sharing software. We will ensure that the legal use of peer- to-peer software, remains unimpeded at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Thank you for your consideration of this very important topic. For more information about these issues, see http://www.unc.edu/policy/copyright.html or contact copyright@unc.edu. For assistance with removing peer-to-peer file sharing applications and mp3s or other materials, contact your departmental computer support professionals or call 962-HELP.

Sincerely,

Stephen A Jarrell                             Robert J. Shelton
Interim Vice Chancellor for IT         Provost
Chief Information Officer                 Executive Vice Chancellor