Copyrighted Material FAQ

Summary of Civil and Criminal Penalties for Violation of Federal Copyright Law

Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes infringement.

Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys' fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505.

Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.

For more information, please see the Web site of the U.S. Copyright Office, especially their FAQ's.

A highly recommended alternative is that users subscribe to a legal downloading service so they can legally and permissibly download digital media and keep themselves safe from prosecution and/or revocation of their Internet & Computing privileges. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lists many of their approved music downloading services.

In October 1998, Congress and the President signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Of importance to universities is the provision in the DMCA which limits liability of online service providers for copyright infringement where certain preventive measures are adopted. The intent is to encourage voluntary compliance with copyright law as it applies in digital media and to discourage illegal downloads and file sharing.

East Mississippi Community College has elected to comply with the conditions and procedures set out in the DMCA for notice and take down of infringing content. Owners of copyrighted works, or persons authorized to act on their behalf, who claim copyright infringement may notify East Mississippi Community College’s designated agent of the alleged infringement.

Below are some of the most significant provisions of the DMCA relevant to college Internet Service Providers (ISP’s):

• It is a criminal offense to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into software.
• ISP’s, including universities like East Mississippi Community College, that provide bandwidth, Internet, and other electronic services to their faculty, students, and staff, are not susceptible to vicarious infringement exposure due to the activity of their users simply by providing the network transmitting the illegal files, provided that the ISP complies with the requirements of the DMCA. Note that this “safe harbor” applies only to those instances where East Mississippi Community College acts solely as an ISP, and not as a content provider. If the person posting the allegedly infringing material is a college employee and the material is work-related, East Mississippi Community College would be functioning as a content provider and the “safe harbor” would not apply.

• ISP’s are liable if they have knowledge of infringing downloads and fail to remove the infringing material from users’ sites.

A summary of the DMCA can be found at: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf.

How do I report a copyright violation?

East Mississippi Community College’s designated agent for receiving notices of copyright infringement is:

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party.
• A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed.