DC++ and Copyright Liability
Cornell University, among some forty universities, has received a letter co-signed by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America asking the president to investigate copyright infringement activity on its local area networks or "LANs." LANs refer to the "subnet" or "intranet" data networking system that runs within the university network perimeter and does not cross the commodity network connections to the Internet. This letter reports evidence of infringing activity on file sharing programs such as DC++ or MyTunes/OurTunes.
I share this information with you to make perfectly clear:
DC++ or MyTunes/OurTunes or any other file sharing programs on Cornell's local area network does not make infringement legal.
The sharing of media, whether it is music, video or games, for which you have neither ownership nor permission, on such file sharing programs constitutes illegal activity and is also a violation of University Information Technology Policy.
That policy, 5.1, Responsible Use of Electronic Communications, is tied to the Code of Conduct. Violations are reported to the Office of Judicial Administration for disciplinary action.
It is both the intent and practice of content owners to enforce their copyrights, and so you may be subject to legal action. Indeed last year Cornell responded to a subpoena for the identity of a user who allegedly downloaded material from such an intranet file share program.
Tracy Mitrano
DMCA Agent for Cornell University
May 11, 2006