The number of illegally shared and downloaded files reported to the university increased by 3,000 percent over the past week, network manager Walt Seidel said in an e-mail to the student body April 24.
The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., that monitors peer-to-peer file sharing programs for illegally shared copyright material, traces the downloads back to specific Internet Protocol addresses and notifies the university.
Seidel then identifies the students at these IP addresses and sends their names to Student Life for disciplinary action.
"It is a crime even on the first offense, and [the RIAA has] the right to sue you, even though they normally don't," Seidel said. "It is against the law to share copyright."
Seidel would not share the number of violations reported last week, but said he saw approximately as many complaints last week as he had in the past year.
"Apparently, with the number of increases we're seeing, [the RIAA is] either looking at Whitworth IP addresses specifically or they're looking at everything a little closer," Seidel said.
Seidel said the RIAA reports around four to five violations to the university each month.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Gnutella, Kazaa or Azureus allow Internet users to share all types of media files over the Internet, including music and video.
The RIAA monitors those programs to trace files that are copied and shared for free to other users, Seidel said.
"It's the sharing that makes it illegal," Seidel said.
The RIAA only reports violations for students using the Internet service provided by the university, Seidel said, adding that while off-campus students are still subject to the same laws, those violations are rarely reported.
Senior Caleb Knox was reported as being in violation of copyright laws earlier this semester. Knox said he had been using BitTorrent, a file-sharing program, to download copyrighted files.
Once his name was reported to Student Life, Knox's Internet access was temporarily shut down. Knox said he had to meet with Alan Jacob, assistant director of student housing, and then write a five-page essay.
"The way Whitworth does it, it makes students write a paper," Knox said. "Then [the university] reports back and nobody ever knows."
Knox said that after the first violation, the university allows the RIAA to deal with student directly.
Contact James Spung at james.spung@whitworthian.com.
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