What is copyright infringement?

*A copyright is a common law right of authors, artists, etc. to publish their works and to prevent others from copying them.  Informally, copyright infringement is the unlicensed or unauthorized copying of a work that is copyrighted.  The rights of an author, artist, etc. are infringed upon if anyone other than he/she:

• reproduces the copyrighted work
• prepares works derived from the copyrighted work
• distributes copies of the copyrighted work to the public in any manner
• in the case of sound recordings, performs the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission

There can be several copyright's for each song and or CD where music is stored. The performance, the lyrics, the bits on the CD all have separate copyrights. Copying or ripping songs illegally can violate many copyrights at once per song.

There is plenty of music on the Internet that can be obtained legally. Visit www.musicunited.org to learn more about the legalities of Internet music. Penn State also offers music / video legally through www.legalmedia.psu.edu

Please read this message from the Executive VP & Provost of PSU, Rodney Erickson, about music, file, and video sharing.

* - Paraphrased from Title 7 of the U.S. Code, Section 106

Why is this important for me, the Penn State student?

President Spanier requests that Penn State students watch this video about music and video downloading. Watch this video

Three things to keep in mind:

• Your computer in the Residence Halls is your responsibility as are the security measures to keep others from using your computer for any activity, legal or not.  See the Connection Agreement.
• Downloading and sharing copyrighted material by any means without the express "written" permission from the copyright holder is illegal. You may only use media or software that you have purchased, not something that someone else has downloaded or purchased. Even if you own a piece of media, software, music, etc., you can not upload or download a copy of your material or any one else's. Distributing material in any manner without the express written permission of the copyright holder is illegal.
• Copyright infringement is in violation of Federal and State laws. It is also against University policy.  Violators will be subject to criminal prosecution and or University disciplinary action.

Student Responsibilities

Students have both a moral and legal responsibility to respect the rights of copyright owners and use the Penn State Residence Hall (RH) Networks responsibly.  Please respect copyright laws.

The network connection is supplied to RH students for academic purposes. Since students are residents of the campus, some recreational use is expected. Students with network connections are bound to the University Network and Computer policies as well as the Housing Connection Agreement. When you apply for a PSU email account and a Housing connection, you agree to be bound by policies during the registration process. Here are the most important things you need to know about these documents:

• RH students are responsible to keep their computers virus free, secure from compromise, and configured properly so they don't go over the bandwidth limits.
• RH students are responsible for all bandwidth (traffic through your port) consumed by your computer. Choose which programs you load on your computer wisely; you will be held responsible for the activity of your computer. Using music/video sharing programs, watching TV shows on-line, or watching YouTube videos are the biggest reasons a student goes over the Internet bandwidth limits. Note: The PSU supported music / video system does not count against your bandwidth limits. Don't allow others to use your computer because if they put you over the limits for any reason you will be held responsible.
• RH students are required to use passwords when using their computer on university networks by university policy. This helps prevent others from using your computer when you're not. Windows XP home requires a Administrator password.
• RH students are responsible to backup their own data regularly or before ResCom works on your computer. You should already have a method to backup your data to an external hard drive, CD ROM, tape, floppy disk or Zip drive.

Remember, stay within your Bandwidth Limits!  You can check your recent consumption and find Bandwidth Issues information. 

Student Do's and Don'ts