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Singing the File-Sharing Blues
 Various pieces of software floating around on the Internet and elsewhere enable users to illegally download unlicensed music, videos, or software for free, and to share those files with others who would also like free access to these materials. Not everyone agrees that this practice ought to be illegal, but nobody can deny that it is. Trade organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) are aggressively opposing free file-sharing. The RIAA is filing suits against college and university students who have copyrighted materials available for file-sharing on their computers.
The RIAA and other trade groups regularly notify Georgia Southern University of the presence of unlicensed materials in file-sharing programs on machines hooked to our network. Under the law, Georgia Southern could face liability if it fails to disable the account and notify the account holder why this has happened. To prevent this, we move quickly to fulfill our legal duties and prevent further distribution of unlicensed files over our network. .
A lot of Georgia Southern students have been getting these notices from the Office of Legal Affairs lately. Because having illegal file-sharing software and content on a computer hooked to our network is a violation of Georgia Southern's computer use policy, the names of students about whom we receive these notices are turned over to Judicial Affairs.
The Office of Legal Affairs moves quickly to protect the University from liability in these situations. Students should work with Information Technology Services to restore their online accounts.
The Office of Legal Affairs exists for the purpose of serving the legal needs of the University, and cannot offer students legal advice in these matters. A few words of general information might be in order, however:
The RIAA and the other industry groups do sometimes sue students. Just because you get a notice from the Office of Legal Affairs doesn't mean you are being sued. The Office of Legal Affairs does not know whether you are being sued or not. If you require legal advice, you will need to contact your own attorney.
Not all downloaded music, videos, and software is illegal. For example, providers such as iTunes, Napster, and Ruckus provide legal licensed product. Here's a list of many more legal music download sites. Realize, however, that just because you are rightfully in possession of a music file does not give you the right to distribute it to others via file-sharing software.
The RIAA and other industry groups have technological means to sniff out the presence of file-sharing software loaded with unlicensed content. Please don't think that illegal file-sharing won't be noticed -- the RIAA notices them all the time.
More information about file-sharing is available online through the RIAA , the Federal Trade Commission , and the United States Copyright Office .
View this original article on the Georgia Southern Legal Affairs web site.
Follow the advice of our ITS department on how to disable inappropriate file sharing.
Don't Get Hooked in Phishing Scam
It's not the kind of phish you'd phind at a Phriday night phish phry. But a lot of computer users at Georgia Southern have been catching these phish.
Phishing is a scam that's becoming widespread and is costing innocent victims money, time, and aggravation.
Here's how it works: The phisher send an e-mail that looks like it came from a legitimate business. It might look quite plausible, incorporating graphics and logos and such. Commonly used are banks (both national and local), credit card companies, online vendors such as Amazon, and PayPal. You get an e-mail from the entity that tells you that the details of your account have been lost in a computer crash, or they have detected some illegal activity in your account, or some other cover story. To correct it, you are told, all you need to do is click on the link the phisher will helpfully provide and follow the instructions.
DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK.
The link would take you to another page, doctored just like the e-mail to look like a legitimate corporate page, where you would be asked to enter your account information. Identity thieves would use this information to open accounts and borrow money in your name. But you might be in trouble even if you don't enter the information, because simply clicking on the link can infect your computer with viruses or other nasty programs designed to read your passwords and credit card numbers and send them to the thieves over the net.
Remember that legitimate businesses should not send you e-mails asking you for account information. We suggest you just delete them right away.
The Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) publishes up-to-date information on this ever-evolving criminal phenomenon.
The Office of Legal Affairs supports efforts to protect students and employees from identity theft. Here's some additional information on Internet fraud and identity theft.
A personal message to you from the Director of ITS:
Copyright Infringement and You?
 In the past, Georgia Southern has had network problems in the residence halls due to the increased downloading of files from the Internet using peer-to-peer tools like KaZaA, Morpheus and Gnutella. Please be advised that downloading copyrighted materials may cause legal problems for you. Simply stated, you should not download copyrighted materials because it is a violation of federal law with serious consequences. Most music and video materials are protected by federal copyright law and the owners of these copyrights, such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), are becoming increasingly aggressive in protecting their interests. If you are downloading copyrighted materials without permission, the owners of those materials have the technology to identify you and they have the resources to fully prosecute you in a federal court for copyright infringement. Georgia Southern University will not be a party to those legal proceedings and will not assist in your legal defense. If you are using peer-to-peer applications to download music or videos without permission of the rightful owner of the copyright, you are probably doing so in violation of federal law. As such, you may also be in violation of the Georgia Southern University Computer Use Policy and may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including suspension from the University. You are advised to consider these consequences prior to downloading copyrighted music and videos.
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