Students, professors, and faculty members who download copyrighted material on Carleton computer servers may start receiving copyright information notices in their email inboxes.
“We get copyright violation and infringement notices all of the time. Now, we’re required to do something with those notices,” said Geoff LeBoldus, senior information technology security analyst at Carleton.
The copyright infringement notices will be forwarded from the Carleton computing and communications services to the offending user if they can be identified by their computer’s IP address.
These notices are new changes to comply with the updated 2012 Copyright Modernization Act, otherwise known as Bill C-11. The “Notice and Notice” clause, which was brought into force on Jan. 2, allows owners to indirectly communicate with those who have allegedly infringed on the owner’s copyright.
“We generally get a couple thousand of these notices a year. I think the busiest four months are still to come,” LeBoldus said.
“I think the key from an awareness perspective is that we’re doing it because we’re obliged to, not because we want to. We’re just doing what the law requires us to do,” said Tim Lott, assistant director of information security at Carleton. “As we improve our processes and our technologies, we’ll be able to identify more and more people all the time.”
Carleton would face statutory penalties if they did not attempt to forward the notices, and the damages would be at least $5,000 and up to $10,000.
“We are required to notify the person who sent us the notice to say that we have served that notice on their behalf. We are not required to give the copyright holder any personal information, and we don’t,” Lott added.
If the copyright holder or their agent wanted to pursue legal action, they have six months to engage Carleton and follow through on the infringement allegation.
Carleton is required to keep the notice for up to a year if there is a legal case, according to Lott.
If copyright owners were to pursue legal actions, the bill limits the violators penalty to a maximum of $5,000 for all infringements in a single proceeding for all works, not for each work infringed.
“I’m honestly not even swayed by that penalty,” said Ferdosa Abdi, a fourth-year political science student.
“I do it because I’m in debt. I can’t afford the luxury of buying movies, music, or books. If my financial situation was more stable, and if everything didn’t cost so much, I probably wouldn’t do it,” she added.
Estéban Fraser, a third-year biology student, said he doesn’t believe that the notice will have an impact on users.
“I’ve never heard of a company tracking down individual pirates—most likely because there are too many of them and the cost would outweigh the benefits,” Fraser said.
“If someone has the intent to watch a movie illegally, a notification isn’t going to change their mind. Even if it has big fines and warnings, it’ll be ignored like any other ad,” he added.
However, not everyone is willing to take the risk at such a big penalty.
“We received a copyright infringement notice and only one of our roommates torrents. We told her about the notice, she freaked out, and she stopped torrenting,” said Lauren Wise, a first-year computer science student.
Lott said although it is ultimately up to students if they want to continue downloading or not, awareness is important.
“I want people to understand. If they want to continue downloading, that’s their decision, but if I can help someone from making a mistake, I want them to be aware that there’s a potential of being caught. I want them to have the chance of making an informed decision,” he said.
