Office of the Provost

This week's Chronicle of Higher Education carries a report on "NetPD, a London-based company that has begun using sophisticated technology to sniff out people who share copyrighted files and to send letters of complaint to university and other officials asking them to take file sharers off their networks." (Desktop computers that are not set up for Internet file sharing cannot be accessed by surveillance companies like NetPD.)

Such violations of copyright law are against the University's Responsible Use of Computing Policy.

The University is not interested in monitoring the use of computers in faculty and staff offices, but members of the University community should realize that the University can not defend people who knowingly violate copyright laws.

The University is also at substantial financial risk. For example, the Software Industry Association (http://www.siia.net/piracy/default.asp) encourages people to file anonymous reports of the violation of software licensing agreements, which generally prohibit the installation of copies of software on more than a single computer. Huge fines have been levied against institutions found not taking aggressive actions to prevent software piracy.