Dear Student,
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copying and sharing
copyrighted materials without permission is illegal. As you may know,
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA), and some other copyright owners and groups
have recently stepped up their efforts to curb illegal filesharing on the
Internet. This academic year, the University has received a much larger
volume of complaints about peer-to-peer file sharing under the DMCA. In
addition, the RIAA is sending “early settlement” letters to colleges
around the country as part of their new anti-theft campaign announced in
January (see press release at http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/032107.asp).
This is an opportune time to remind you of relevant policies and practices at
UC Berkeley.
DMCA “take-down” notices
Federal law requires that the University take action when it is notified
that someone on its network is distributing copyrighted materials without
permission. Whether you are aware of the violation or not, if UC Berkeley’s
DMCA agent receives a “takedown notice” alleging that your computer is
distributing copyrighted material without permission, the University follows
established policy enforcement procedures, see:
http://www.rescomp.berkeley.edu/besmart/filesharing/
http://itpolicy.berkeley.edu/copyright/
Early Settlement Letters
The University of California has agreed to forward “early settlement” letters
to students on the campus network that the RIAA alleges have shared
copyrighted material illegally. The University will send a cover letter
along with the RIAA early settlement letter to the student’s email address,
as well as his/her current and permanent addresses. Unless served with a
proper subpoena, UC Berkeley will NOT release the name of the user to the
content owner or RIAA upon receipt of a DMCA notice or early settlement letter.
By forwarding the early settlement letters, the University of California has
made no determination that students have engaged in copyright infringement or
that they should enter into an early settlement with the copyright holder.
It is solely the student’s personal decision whether to avail him or herself
of the “early settlement” procedure.
Legal downloading
UC Berkeley supports and encourages the legal downloading of music, movies,
and software. Residential and Student Service Programs provides extensive
education for incoming students about the potential legal and policy
enforcement consequences of illegal filesharing. To find out more about
these campus programs, please visit
http://rescomp.berkeley.edu/besmart/ and
http://rts.berkeley.edu/legaldownloads/.
To comply with the law and to protect yourself from possible litigation, we
strongly encourage you to remove illegally-obtained copyrighted material
from your computer, and to stop downloading copyrighted material illegally
if you do so now. We will continue our vigorous education efforts in this
area, but ultimately the choice is yours. Please take advantage of the
information on the websites listed in this letter.
