Why does UCS care about the legality of file sharing? Isn that solely the responsibility of the person sharing the files?
When copyrighted files are shared from a computer on campus, the owner of the copyright usually can’t identify who owns that computer. But they can easily discover that it is coming from someplace on our campus, so they often come to us with their complaints. According to the law, if we have been warned of illegal file sharing on our network, we are liable for criminal charges if we don’t take action. These complaints average about once a month, but sometimes they come in groups; in one single day last year, we received complaints about ten different people illegally sharing files. The rate is increasing each year.
