April 25, 2007

Attn:  Faculty, Staff and Students

Mount Union College has received communications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that they will be approaching the violation of copyright law (Downloading or sharing unlicensed music and video) in new ways.  Mount Union College does not condone students, faculty or staff downloading and sharing music or video illegally.  Such illegal sharing or downloading of music or video is not only a violation of copyright, but also a violation of the campus acceptable use policy for technical resources.  (http://it.muc.edu/documents/TRAUP.pdf)

As a result of this new initiative, if infractions are noted by the RIAA, the College may now be required to identify violators for possible litigation.  We wish to make members of the College community aware of this because it could have legal and financial implications for anyone violating copyright. The legal and financial responsibilities of violations belong entirely to the individual violator under such circumstances.

If you would like assistance in removing what you believe to be illegally downloaded music, or the software used in sharing of music, please feel free to contact the IT helpdesk at ext. 4357.  The IT helpdesk is willing to share instructions on removal of such items.

For additional reading, we recommend reviewing a news article on the issue available at:

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/022807.asp

Information Technology Department