Downloading and sharing copyrighted materials (video, music, books, etc.) without permission from the copyright owner is against the law. United States copyright laws provide, among other things, that the owner of a copyrighted work has the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work and distribute copies of such work to others. Therefore, any person other than the copyright owner who copies, uploads, downloads, swaps or engages in similar activities with respect to a copyrighted work without the express written permission of the copyright owner is committing a federal crime.

Davidson College receives notices of claimed copyright infringement related to students downloading and sharing video and music via peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, KaZaA, eDonkey, LimeWire, etc. The College is obligated to respond to complaints of illegal activities or inappropriate use of the campus network. The consequences of copyright violation are serious and policies and procedures have been adopted (see link below) to ensure that Davidson College remains in compliance

Should you need assistance removing a peer-to-peer application from your computer, please contact the ITS ResNet office (email resnet@davidson.edu or phone x2900, option 2,1).

http://www2.davidson.edu/its/pubkb/doc_view.aspx?id=865&sub_id=80&cat_id=21