Digital Piracy and Anti-Piracy
Piracy is no longer limited to scary and haggard sea-fairing bandits in the Caribbean. Modern day pirates surround us everyday in both the cyber and real worlds. Piracy and general counterfeiting is a daily legal battle and within the realm of cyberspace it is a trade that literally never sleeps. While the legal ramifications of actively pirating copyrighted works is fairly obvious there are also more subtle ramifications of piracy that can affect all of us.
Fact: All legal action to date has not stopped piracy.
Music MP3s and movie AVIs are still being shared, bought and sold on-line. Written works are still being leaked and openly shared via the internet. Characters, items and textures are being duplicated and sold in cyber realms such as World of Warcraft and Second Life.
Fact: Costs and damages can be severe if prosecuted.
We have all heard the stories of those who were sued by or settled out of court with agencies such as the RIAA. July 2009, the RIAA was awarded $675,000 or $22,500 per song against one defendant. After a seven year legal battle the RIAA settles with the another defendant for $7,000 in August 2009. But what about the other things that are more difficult to define - increased cost of software, replica scams, embedded malware or computer down time?
Fact: Pirating of copyrighted material using UT Arlington resources (computer or network) can result in student expulsion or employee termination.
Along with the potential for jail time and financial damages pirating can affect your tenure at UT Arlington. Students found to engage in pirating or illegal file sharing will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Faculty and staff found to engage in pirating or illegal file sharing will be reported to the Office of Institutional Compliance.
UT Arlington Policy - Anti-Piracy
Legal Alternatives
As an active student, faculty, or staff of UT Arlington you have a plethora of access to various documents and publications via the services offered by the UT Arlington Library for official and academic use.UT Arlington Library
Academic resources such as Internet Archive.
Music Alternatives
RIAA list of music sites.
Legal Pay Sites
- iTunes
- Amazon
- emusic
Legal Free Sites
- Official artist sites and podcasts.
- Internet Radio such as Techno.fm, Yahoo Music, and Pandora.
- Community driven sites such as AcidPlanet, GarageBand and ArtistServer.
Video / TV / Movie Alternatives
- Public Domain archives such as PublicDomainFlicks.
- Official network sites.
- Free portals such as hulu and Fancast.
- Community driven sites such as Blender .
Related Links
Copyright and Data Ownershipsite revised 20091020