A Message from Stony Brook’s Chief Information Security Officer

Over the past few months, we have received numerous complaints from owners of copyrighted material that members of our community are not being sufficiently diligent in protecting their rights to those materials. The complaints thus far have concerned software, movies, television shows, music recordings, and academic journals. We are obligated to ask you to read and follow University Policy P512: Duplication of Materials Protected by Copyright.

Specifically, you are not to use Stony Brook’s computer network to share copyrighted material without the express permission of the copyright owner. You should know that outside companies monitor file transfer activity (e.g. BitTorrent, IRC, Newsgroups) and that they are actively trying to sue for damages for copyright violations. The network traffic responsible for transferring copyrighted files over the Stony Brook network may be subject to monitoring and further investigation.

You should know that an extraordinary amount of malware is spread through peer-to-peer networks (e.g. BitTorrent, IRC, Newsgroups) which puts your computer at risk and may increase the risk to the community.

Finally, you are reminded to periodically change the password associated with your NetID, and to never share it with others because any copyright violation would then be attributed to you.

In closing, you should know that Stony Brook University as a community of scholars values the sharing of information, but also recognizes and respects intellectual property rights.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this important matter.

Philip Doesschate
Chief Information Security Officer
Division of Information Technology
Stony Brook University

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