Peer-to-peer (P2P) applications such as BitTorrent, BearShare, Limewire, Morpheus, iMesh and KaZaA make it easy for you to share music, videos, movies, software, text, and other files. However, please keep the following guidelines in mind.
Copyright
Using P2P applications to illegally share copyrighted music and movies is the #1 way students violate federal copyright law.
The university cannot protect you from a copyright complaint. The university may also be required by law to disclose information about you to a complainant for use in pursuing legal action against you. The penalties for violation of copyright law can range from university sanctions to civil and criminal prosecution (copyright violators can be held liable for a minimum of $750 per violation). Refer to Student Legal Services’ article on Notice of Illegal Music Downloading and File Sharing from the RIAA or MPAA.
You are not protected just because you received material at no cost or are distributing material with no charge. Your only protection is to not possess or distribute any unlicensed copyrighted material. There are many Web sites that provide legal online music, movies, and other content. Refer to the Keep It Legal page for a list of services that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Network Bandwidth
Most P2P applications are configured so other users can access your hard drive and share your files all the time. This constant file transfer can degrade your computer’s performance and generate heavy traffic loads on the university network. P2P applications can consume your weekly allocation very quickly.
The university's network bandwidth consumption is monitored. If your usage impacts the overall performance of the network, your computer may be blocked.
If you use a P2P application to share content legally, you should know how to control or disable the application.
Privacy
If you are running a P2P application, you may be inadvertently sharing personal information, such as e-mail messages or credit card information. You need to make sure you know which files and data the application is sharing. You should know how to control or disable your P2P application to ensure that you are not inadvertently sharing personal information.
Security
Viruses are easily spread using P2P applications. Many P2P applications include “malware” in the download, so you may be unintentionally infecting your computer. To protect your computer, keep your anti-virus program up-to-date and only install programs acquired from reputable sources. You can download anti-virus software on the BevoWare site.
Resource Use
Some P2P applications use your computer as a computational or storage resource for another organization’s use. This may not be an acceptable use of state-owned resources such as the university network or university-owned computers. Do not permit any such use of your system without the consent of the university. For assistance, please contact the Information Security Office, abuse@utexas.edu.
University Policy and Assistance
By running a P2P application, you may be consuming excessive network bandwidth and/or violating copyright law, both of which are violations of the university’s rules for acceptable use of information technology. You may also be sharing confidential information and/or making your computer insecure.
If you have questions about P2P applications, please call the ITS Help Desk at 512-475-9400 or send e-mail to the ITS Help Desk.
