On Aug. 14, 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 was signed into law. Proposed regulations for implementing the act were issued by the Department of Education on Aug. 21, 2009, and final regulations were issued on Oct. 29, 2009.
Per Educause, several sections of the HEOA deal with unauthorized file sharing on campus networks, imposing three general requirements on all U.S. colleges and universities:
According to HEOA law:
Illegal downloading or unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject a person to civil and criminal penalties.
According to EDUCAUSE, the Department of Education will work with representatives of copyright holders and institutions to develop a summary of the civil and criminal penalties for violation of Federal copyright laws to include as part of the Federal Student Aid Handbook that an institution may use to meet this requirement.
Anne Arundel Community College's policies addressing copyright infringement include:
Consumer information will be maintained on this page as well as on the college portal, MyAACC. Information also will be included in an email sent annually to all enrolled students regarding "AACC Rules, Policies, Programs and Services."
All users of college computers are required to read and acknowledge an Acceptable Use statement prior to gaining access to the network. This information identifies the specific college policies for which the user needs to abide by.
AACC performs traffic monitoring to identify inappropriate use of information technology resources which includes excess bandwidth consumption.
There are many alternatives as to how information can be shared. Review the list of legitimate download sources which EDUCAUSE has put together and will maintain for the benefit of higher education.