File Sharing

1. It is illegal

 

Both the U.S. Copyright Act, and the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, prohibits the distribution or sharing of copyrighted works without the copyright owner's permission.

 

2. It is dangerous!

 

The "peer-to-peer" software that is used for file sharing may bypass your computer's operating system security and open your entire computer, including your personal information, to anyone on the Internet.  Programs such as KaZaA, Morpheus, Filetopia, Bit Torrent and others may affect your computer's performance and can cause system crashes or loss of your data.

 

3. It reduces our network performance

 

It is the nature of these programs to share your files with as many computers as possible; the resulting volume of network traffic can slow down or disable our entire network.

 

4. It is simply wrong!

 

Artists, writers, musicians, and other creators of intellectual property rely upon copyright to protect their works. Without copyright, there would be no way to protect their income and no incentive to make their works available to us through books, CDs, videos, etc. When you violate copyright by downloading and sharing these works, you are depriving the artist of real income, and that is simply wrong.

 

The Becker College Acceptable Usage Policy directly refers to illegal file sharing and can be found by clicking on this link.