Question
What does BGSU's Digital Copyright Safeguard program encompass?
Answer
It is the responsibility of all users of BGSU information technology resources to know and understand all relevant laws and policies that govern usage. In general, the members of the BGSU community obey the law as well as the BGSU Information Technology Policy. However, some members of the BGSU community, as well as many affiliates of other college and universities across the nation, continue to ignore and dismiss the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which is intended to limit the liability of service providers whose users are infringing upon the copyright of others and to define the procedures necessary to report such infringement.
Information Technology Services (ITS) and the Office of Student Affairs have implemented a layered approach to educate students on the issues surrounding the DMCA, as well as measures to help enforce the proper, non-copyright infringing use of information technology.
BGSU's Digital Copyright Safeguard program offers the following resources:
Education/Awareness
For additional educational material regarding peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), please refer to these P2P educational resources.
Legal Alternatives
As outlined in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), universities are required to provide information regarding legal content that is available.
Educause maintains this list of alternatives and regularly updates the content.
More information can be found by visiting the following website: EDUCAUSE - Policy Analysis and Advocacy: Legal Sources of Online Content
Technical Safeguards
As of 2012, ITS does not allow P2P traffic for the exchange of music, media, and other software. This is enforced through a variety of network technologies that manage and prioritize network traffic.
Reacting to DMCA Cease and Desist Notices
While we believe the BGSU response will mitigate the violations of DMCA, it is still possible that members of the BGSU community will ignore or circumvent the measures we have undertaken. When this happens representatives of copyrighted content (RIAA, MPAA, BSA, etc) may detect the illegal downloading or sharing of copyrighted content on the BGSU network.
As a result, they will send the university a letter of the alleged infringement. In order to comply, ITS will forward the complaint to Student Affairs (if the alleged infringer is an employee, ITS will forward the appropriate disciplinary authority for investigation), who will in turn notify the student of the complaint.
The Office of Student Affairs can be contacted here.
For additional assistance, please contact Information Technology Services at 419-372-0999 or through chat.