Copyright, the Internet and Music

Copyright Issues

Students may have seen media reports of an increased vigilance on the part of the music industry to seek to control music piracy in universities. Students in the US have been sued, as have some universities, for copyright infringement arising from music piracy. Universities in the UK and Australia are also being targeted by record companies.

This is a timely reminder to students that under the University's Digital Technologies Acceptable Use Policy copyright infringement by students is grounds for the suspension of user account and may result in disciplinary action. The University provides students with access to computer systems and facilities for academic purposes. Students who are found to be using the University's systems to engage in conduct which infringes copyright – including uploading and downloading files without the permission of the owner of copyright – are exposing themselves and the University to legal action, and will be subject to disciplinary action.

The web is NOT a copyright-free zone.

DO NOT assume that you are entitled to download everything you can access on the web. Some material may be on the web without the copyright owner's permission.

DO NOT assume that because you can locate a music file through services such as BitTorrent and Gnutella, or sites like Youtube, FilesTube or Mediafire  that you can download, convert or transfer it, even for personal use.

DO NOT, without the permission of the owner of copyright:

post music or other files to University web sites

transfer music or other files to friends and family via University email

burn music or other files to CD's.

DO NOT use University equipment or the computer networks to download, redistribute or copy unauthorised files.

As you may be aware, there are some web sites which offer – with the copyright owner's permission – MP3 files or other music formats for free download. If you want to download or transfer music for any non-academic purpose, this should be done privately, and not on a University-owned computer or through the University's computer network.