Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Policy

All Cleary University students, faculty and staff are required to follow the University’s Technology Acceptable Use Policy which includes complying with all copyright laws. Compliance with this policy requires that students, faculty and staff not share copyrighted material over the University network, including Web pages, peer-to-peer file sharing software, and e-mail. This applies to both University owned computers and personally owned computers used to access the University network. All members of the University community have the responsibility to ensure that the proper rights for any material made available on or sharing via the University network have been secured. All members of the University community should make the assumption that if there is any doubt to whether an item being shared is legal, it may well not be.

Any sharing of copyrighted materials on the University network is a violation of the Technology Acceptable Use Policy, and may lead to University disciplinary proceedings and, in some cases, legal action. Although peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing can sometimes be used for legitimate reasons, any use of P2P software on the campus network may result in Internet access being disabled. Individuals who need to use P2P software for legitimate purposes can discuss their needs with the IT Service Desk. In addition to consuming bandwidth and technological resources, P2P file-sharing also exposes the University network to viruses, spyware and other attacks. It also is frequently used for illegally distributing copyrighted works. Some file-sharing programs that could trigger action are Ares, Azureus, BitTorrent, BitLord, KaZaA, LimeWire, Shareaza and uTorrent.

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