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HEOA Unauthorized File Sharing Compliance Strategy

Part 1: Compliance Plan

1-1. Relevant Policies

1-2. What technology-based deterrents have you decided to use?

  • The College responds to all Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices according to the Digital Copyright Violations Policy published on our website.
  • The border firewall is configured with an implicit deny all policy for inbound connections to end user networks. This prevents users from making any server service, such as a web server, ftp server, ssh, etc. available to the outside.
  • P2P activity is regulated and positive identification of end users is achieved with advanced firewall technology.

1-3. What mechanisms are you using to educate your community?

Consistent with our educational principles, we view education as the most important element in combating illegal sharing of copyrighted materials. We use a wide variety of methods to inform our community about the law and Macalester’s response to copyright infringement claims. In addition to the websites and resources described in section 1.1 these include the following activities:

  • In order to use college computing resources, all members of the Macalester Community endorse a Responsible Use Policy that “…the faculty, students and staff of Macalester College honor intellectual property…”.
  • Information about file sharing with a reference to the College Filesharing Guidelines is sent to all new students. This information is also referenced in the Student Handbook.
  • Each fall we send an email to all students regarding illegal distribution of copyrighted materials.
  • Computing support staff, including student ITS Help Desk workers, are regularly trained on the College position with respect to copyright issues. Student workers provide an important channel for communicating with the student community.
  • Macalester’s policies and procedures concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and our response to infringement claims are published on Macalester’s website.

1-4. What procedures are you using for handling unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material (e.g., monitoring, sanctions, etc.)?

The College’s policy detailing the steps to be pursued in responding to DMCA notices are as follows. These are published in the Student Handbook.

  1. All notices are sent to an email created for this purpose: [email protected].
  2. A Web Help Desk ticket is automatically generated and sent to: ITS Help Desk, Provost, an Associate Director of ITS, Designated Network Administrator.
  3. ITS staff, using firewall technology, identifies the end user associated with the IP address provided in the notice.
  4. Once positive identification is determined, the ticket is updated to include that information and the Associate Director of ITS sends an email message to the end user requesting that: End user remove offending material from network within one week, and to inform the Information Security Officer when this has been done.
    Note: While a best effort is always employed, positive identification is not always possible.
  5. In this message end user is informed that “Receipt of a second complaint will result in loss of network access for all computing devices (MAC addresses) registered to you on the Macalester network.  This will be followed by a referral to the Dean of Students.”

1-5. How are you periodically reviewing the plan? What criteria are you using to determine if it is effectively combating copyright infringement?

The policy and procedure are reviewed annually by the CIO and the Dean of Students Office in June and revised as necessary to remain in compliance. Based on the monitoring data that ITS collects relative to network traffic as well as the volume of DMCA notices received, the review will assess the overall effectiveness of the College’s policy and procedures to promote the legal use of copyrighted materials. Any changes to the policy and/or procedures as a result of the review will take effect at the commencement of the following academic year.

Part 2: Offering Alternatives

2-1. Relevant Policy

Filesharing Guidelines

2-2. Are you carrying out your own survey of alternatives or linking to one or more lists maintained by others?  If the latter, which lists?

We do not maintain our own resource site and instead provide links to MusicUnited and MPAA on Filesharing Guidelines.

2-3. Have you made any special arrangements with one or more content providers to obtain content through legal methods?

At this time the College has no special arrangements with one or more content providers to obtain content through legal methods. The College’s position is that the College is not in the business of brokering such services.

Part 3: Informing the Community

3-1. Relevant Policies

3-2. Have you developed your own statement regarding copyright and copyright law in general or are you linking to such statements maintained by others? If the latter, which statements?

Yes, Macalester has developed its own statement regarding copyright and copyright law, included in our Policy on Ownership of Copyrights in Works.