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ILLEGAL FILE SHARING AT U OF L
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Name: Aaron Williams ·
' Writer. awilliams@louisvillecardinatcom
•'
F~m: The Louisville Cardinal
In January, a University of from aU ofL IP address.
Louisville graduate student was - , Jon Miller, a computer science
using the peer-to-peer file-sharing major, explained how companies
program called Frost Wire in the such as Sony Picture~ can track il-privacy
of his home to illegally legal file sharing. ·
download a film copyrighted by "Film companies use the sam~
Sony Pictures. As the student tells programs used by download-it,
he had forgotten to turn off ers, such as uTorrent ' or Frost-
FrostWire's sharing properties. As Wire, to track IP addresses,"
a resuh, when his download com- said Miller. "These programs all
pleted, he began. sharing the file ' share your IP. address with oth-with
other Frost Wire users. He ers downloading the same file, S,O
then brought his laptop to class others know where to send what
with him and logged onto -u of you're downloading. Once the
:Ls network. He was unknowingly - companies have a list of IP ad-sharing
the file on U of :Ls wire- dresses of those downloading and
less Internet while he was using uploading, the companies then
his laptop in class. ' · have to go to a court to subpoe-
"1 was sent an e-mail from U na the owner of that IP address
, of L the next morning," said the .for the identity of the user. The
student, who wishes to remain courts decide whether or not the
anonymous. He was informed case has warrant and, if so, the
that Sony Pictures had noti- company can then take the user
fied the university, saying that to court for damages." ,
the copyrighted Il).aterial being The student said he has faced
shared on FrostWire was coming no legal action from Sony Pic-
,,
tures. However,- he did face
punishment from the university
for violating its Internet usage
policy.
Brenda Gombosky, director of
IT enterprise security, outlined U
of :Ls policy' on matters of copy­right
infringement.
"U of :Ls policy is the same
as Title 17 of the United States
Code," said Gombosky. "Down­loading
or uploading substantial
parts of a copyrighted work with­out
proper consent constitutes an
infringement. This includes file
sharing or downloading books,
songs, movies, TV shows or
games without permission of the
copyright holder." .
Goinbosky also described the
penalties students may face if
they violate this policy.
DOWNLOADING,
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