Student Right to Know Additional Information

What is a copyright and what College policies address violations of copyright laws?

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects an owner’s right to control the reproduction, distribution, performance, display and transmission of original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.

Activity that violates these protections, including downloading and/or sharing copyrighted works without the owners' permission is a violation of copyright law and also of the College's Copyright Policy and Procedure. Nor is such activity an acceptable use of Frederick Community College's information technology network. The use of technology policy and procedure outlines the prohibition of unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material may result in short-term or permanent loss of access to the college information technology resources, and/or may result in civil or criminal prosecution and/or may result in termination of employment, and/or may result in academic discipline or dismissal for students. Civil and criminal penalties for violations of Federal copyright laws are the responsibility of the violator.

What is Frederick Community College’s Plan to Address Copyright Violations?

Frederick Community College uses a network monitoring device to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyright material. This technology-based deterrent can be used to analyze web traffic for patterns and anomalies indicative of illegal Peer-to-Peer file sharing. If it is discovered that a system is using excessive bandwidth, the user will be contacted to ensure that the bandwidth consumption is for legal purposes and that the user is aware of the College’s policies and procedures concerning illegal peer-to-peer file sharing.

This plan will be reviewed annually by the CTO in collaboration with the Vice President for Student Affairs in June of each year and revised as necessary to remain in compliance. Based on the monitoring data that IT Network Services collects and evaluates relative to network traffic, the review will assess the overall effectiveness of the College's plan to comply with the HEOA Peer-to-Peer file sharing requirement to promote the legal use of copyrighted materials. Any changes to this plan as a result of the review will take effect at the commencement of the following academic year.

Alternatives to Illegal Downloading

Frederick Community College provides a link on its public website to the Educause legal download page. 
The Educause page provides links to sites that provide numerous options for obtaining music and videos in a legal manner. The site is located at: http://www.educause.edu/legalcontent.