Illegal File Sharing Policy

Purpose

In accordance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) which was signed into law on August 14, 2008 and which went into effect on July 1, 2010, Mississippi College has defined procedures and plans needed to comply with the Information Technology portions of the HEOA.

Scope

This document applies to all users, faculty, staff, students, and visitors, of Mississippi College networks, wired and wireless.

Requirements

HEOA, in a large part, deals with the means of effectively combating the unauthorized file sharing of copyrighted materials on campus networks, specifying general requirements for all U.S. colleges and universities to include in their written plans:

• An annual disclosure to students describing copyright law and campus policies related to violating copyright law;
• A plan to “effectively combat” copyright abuse on the campus network using “one or more technology-based deterrents;”
• A list of “alternatives to illegal downloading.”

Annual Disclosure

The Computer Services Department will send an e-mail message to all faculty, staff, and students, during the fall and spring semesters of each year, to make them aware of copyright laws and campus policies.

Link: Copyright Disclosure Statement

Technology Deterrents

Mississippi College has implemented several technology-based deterrents to help combat illegal file sharing (distribution) of copyrighted materials.

1. The University operates and maintains bandwidth packet shapers which can limit the throughput of popular file sharing programs.
2. The University has a registered DMCA agent that receives and actively responds to all DMCA complaints.
3. The University employs intrusion prevention systems to detect and block certain file sharing applications and malware seeking to take control of or steal sensitive information from University owned computers.

Alternatives to Illegal Downloading

As part of the Annual Disclosure in the “Annual Disclosure” section, each faculty, staff, and student will be sent a link to the Educause list of legal and legitimate sites for content downloading.