If you have a program, application or service on your computer that allows you to get any song, video, game or other entertainment file that you want for free even though you could buy it in the store or online, you are at risk of violating copyright and being discovered and prosecuted.
That program is probably a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) filesharing program and may have a name like eDonkey2000, eMule, Limewire, BearShare, FastTrack, Overnet, WinMX, Ares, DC++, Shareaza, Soulseek, KaZaA, BitTorrent, Azureus, BitTornado, BT++ or BitComet.
When you use a P2P program to get an entertainment file, you are connecting to the P2P program of someone like you who has already obtained the file. Then your P2P program automatically becomes a provider of that file to others on the Internet, without telling you who is getting the file from you.
Copyright owners use those same P2P programs to see who is sharing the entertainment files that they want to protect. When they find their file available on your computer, they will send a complaint to USU demanding its removal. USU must comply with that request to avoid legal action against the university.
The copyright owner might also send USU an "early settlement notice" for USU to forward to you. The settlement notice will list the protected files that they found on your computer (via your P2P) and tell you how much they want you to pay them to avoid being sued in Federal Court. If you don't take their settlement offer (which will probably be several thousand dollars) they will subpoena USU to find out who you are in preparation for suing you.
What can you do to avoid these problems? The simple answer is: don't use P2P filesharing programs to obtain free copies of entertainment files that are available for sale. P2P has legitemate uses: sharing free software and free music from startup bands, for instance. Even then be careful that your P2P isn't sharing more from your computer than you think. Even songs that you have paid for and stored on your computer might be shared by a carelessly configured P2P program and that sharing is still a copyright violation.
There are many legal on-line sources of entertainment files which charge modest fees.
See the new RIAA education campaign and the MPA toolkit.
Cornell University - notifications of copyright violation
Cornell University - copyright education course
University of California, Riverside - DMCA guidelines for Students, Faculty & Staff
Indiana University - Filesharing: Are You legal?
University of Kansas - DMCA and you
Dickinson College - Peer to Peer Use
U Wisconsin - Filesharing video clip
U Massachusetts - copyright quiz
Purdue U - My name is Amber; They got me!
letter from RIAA to University Presidents
University CIO listserver discussions
RIAA letter to commercial ISPs (not just .edu)
Letter to All Students from the Cornell University IT Policy Office - see what other students are being told about filesharing.
