Library and Technology Services received 419 copyright infringement notices from the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and other major copyright holders for 2010, Chief Information Security Officer Dennis Devlin said in a phone interview with the Justice. According to Devlin, that number indicates an increasing trend in copyright infringement notices: LTS received 311 notices in 2009, 241 notices in 2008 and 110 notices in 2007.

Devlin attributed the increasing number of notices to the larger amount of media available on the Internet and the fact that students are more active online.

"Internet usage has definitely gone up tremendously," said Devlin. "Within the past couple of years, [there has been] social network usage and streaming of audio and visual material, things that are available now that just weren't a few years ago."

Devlin explained that these notices from copyright holders were takedown, or cease and desist, notices. According to Devlin, takedown notices are the most common notices sent to LTS from copyright holders.

When LTS is given a takedown notice, the offending user's access to the Brandeis Internet server is cut off and the student is required to remove the copyrighted material and notify LTS that he or she did so before he or she can regain Internet access on the Brandeis network.

Offenders can also be served a settlement or presettlement notice, in which they can be fined up to $3,000, wrote Devlin in the e-mail.

He further explained that in the worst-case scenario, the copyright holder can actually take the offender to court to settle the infringement, although it has not happened to any student at Brandeis.

In a follow-up e-mail to the Justice, Devlin explained that over the years there have been a number of students who received a takedown notice who also received a presettlement letter.

Those students were given the choice to either pay a $3,000 fine or be sued in a court of law. The majority of students opted to pay the fine.

According to Devlin, the majority of copyright material addressed in the notices was, and has consistently been, music MP3 files but also includes movies, games, software and e-books.

Devlin explained that all members on the Brandeis network are assigned a temporary IP address. When a user of the network illegally shares or downloads a file, the copyright holder of the material of that file is notified and then serves a notice to LTS in order to cooperate with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Because the IP address of a user is temporary, the copyright holder cannot contact the user directly. LTS matches the IP address to a user on the Brandeis network and usually notifies that user within one to two days.

Since the University operates as an Internet Service Provider in accordance with the DMCA, users of the network who commit copyright infringement are personally responsible.

According to Devlin, copyright infringement usually occurs with file sharing programs such as BitTorrent and LimeWire-when a user has to download a program in order to illegally obtain files. The file-sharing program may also have access to files on the user's computer, which it can upload to the Internet, sometimes without the user being aware of the program doing so. This type of file sharing is called peer-to-peer or P2P sharing.

While P2P sharing is the most common type of copyright infringement, Devlin said that infringement occurs when any type of copyrighted material is shared though digital files. In a phone interview with the Justice, Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Dean Gendron explained that many students are under an incorrect impression they may distribute files if they have paid for them.

"The legal language around the purchase of a DVD or the download of a movie is complicated," said Gendron, using visual media as an example. "You're really only buying the right to use the file for your own use and your own devices, not in a public setting."

Devlin explained that once more users have access to the digital files, or once there are multiple copies of the file, their copyright of the file has been violated.

Devlin said that the vast majority of the copyright infringement notices were served to students, although sometimes faculty and staff may be served notices not for entertainment media, but for other copyrighted materials such as e-books.

Gendron and Devlin emphasized that when students are served a copyright infringement notice, the goal of LTS is to educate students on acceptable Internet usage and file sharing, not to penalize students.

"We very deliberately try to adopt a philosophy of freedom and responsibility," said Devlin. Rather than disabling or blocking P2P sites on the Brandeis network, Devlin explained that LTS tries to use the notices as teaching moments so students can learn legitimate uses of file sharing.

Devlin said that students can find a link to LTS Security Information website in a recent e-mail sent by him and Gendron to the recent Brandeis community, which lists legal alternatives for obtaining online media. The e-mail also contains links to a government information website about copyright and the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.