The ease of illegally downloading movies, music and software through peer-to-peer software such as BitTorrent and LimeWire, has created a copyright infringement epidemic on campus, said William Sams, Ohio University's Chief Information Officer.
An average of 10 to 15 notices of copyright infringement originating from university Internet provider addresses have been arriving daily Fall Quarter, Sams said. It shows the need to be looking to better educate people at the University about copyright infringement issues.
Software companies, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have been sending the notices, which inform the university of illegal downloading, Sams said.
The university has received no actual subpoenas -
Sams said, this year that number is around 2 500. He attributed the large increase in the service becoming free for student use.
Cdigix spokeswoman Laurie Rubenstein refused to confirm any exact number of users but did say that OU was one of the larger schools using the company's service.
Although students may download an unlimited number of songs or movies, there are several restrictions on their use.
The songs cannot be transferred to other computers or portable music players, and the program isn't compatible with Apple computers. The company recognizes that incompatibility is a problem, but has no plans to implement compatible software at this time, Rubenstein said.
Statistics from the university's Go Mobile program show half of the students purchasing laptops chose Apple computers, Sams said, adding that use of the program may be re-evaluated in light of this trend.
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