Copyright Infringement Policy
Introduction
HCU wants to protect you and our information resources. To be compliant with federal regulations, this important notification is distributed to the Campus community. Courts have recently imposed fines against individuals found guilty of violating copyright laws. The purpose of this policy is to officially notify all students, faculty, and staff, that it is a violation of federal law and HCU policy to share and/or distribute copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. Violators may be subject to civil and criminal prosecution under federal law, as well as personal sanctions specified in HCU policy. The following are Copyright policies by HCU departments.
Information Technology Services (ITS)
File Sharing
File sharing software (like BitTorrent, BearShare, KaZaA, eMule, μTorrent, etc.) is most commonly used to download music and movies from the Internet. Many do not realize that this software may turn your personal computer into a server, or upload site, even if that was not your intent. Many worms, viruses and other malicious code get transferred during peer-to-peer file transfers, too. Files on your network connected PC may then be illegally shared with every other person connected to the World Wide Web. It is imperative that the file sharing capability of these systems be disabled. If you do not know how to disable this function, please contact the Help Desk. Industry representatives aggressively monitor the Internet to discover incidents of illegal file sharing. When violations are discovered, they contact the network owner and/or the Internet Service Provider and demand that the offending device be disconnected from the network. To protect the user and HCU from further responsibility under federal copyright law or HCU policy, Information Technology Services will disable network access for any machine for which a complaint of copyright infringement has been received.
Scanning
Computer Labs and other administrative areas provide optical scanners to Faculty, Staff and Students. These scanners could be used to copy (using the photocopier method) a book, journal or other printed material. The result is a computer file with the image of the book or journal pages. This file could be printed or read from the computer screen. The principle is the same; to reproduce copyrighted material into an electronic format. This is also a violation of the copyright law if done in excess of the accepted “fair use.”
Moody Library
Fair Use and Copyright Law
The Copyright Law provides a set of rules regarding library reproductions. Moody library complies with the law and provides that the copying equipment displays a notice that the making of a copy may be subject to the copyright law.
The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. For more information check the resources links below.
HCU Actions
Computer Use Policy
The HCU Computer Use Policy states that “The University considers violations of the computer use policy to be a disciplinary offense. Violators of the policy shall be dealt with to the fullest extent of the student code of conduct, university policy, or (if applicable) criminal law and prosecution. Intentional attempts to impede, restrict, corrupt or in any other way disrupt the efficient operation of the university computer system(s) shall be construed as a blatant and intentional attempt to breach the integrity and security of the campus computer system, and shall be subject to the fullest extent of disciplinary policy and/or law.”