Sharing of Copyrighted Material at SUNY New Paltz

Federal copyright law (Digital Millennium Copyright Act – DMCA) mandates that Internet Providers respond to all copyright infringements reported to them.

Copyrighted material includes: Music, Movies, Software, Books and other intellectual property.

SUNY NP has a three (3) strike policy for offenders:

Strike 1

• The user’s Internet connection will be immediately shut down and he/she will be sent a violation notice identifying the copyrighted material in question.
• The student must respond to all notifications in writing. All users identified as violators will be forwarded automatically to a web page that contains required information and procedures.
• A notice will be emailed to the users ZMail account with a copy of the original copyright infringement report attached.
• Once the issue is resolved the student’s Internet connection will be unblocked.

Strike 2

• The student’s Internet connection will be immediately shut down, a second violation notice will be sent to the users ZMail account and the matter will be referred to the Student Affairs for disciplinary action.
• The range of possible actions could include – penalties and probation to possible separation from the institution, depending on the circumstance and nature of the violation.
• Once the issue has been resolved by Student Affairs, the student’s Internet connection may be unblocked.

Strike 3

• The student’s Internet connection will be permanently terminated and the third violation notice will be sent to the student’s ZMail account.
• The matter will then be referred to Student Affairs for a final judicial hearing. Some violations may constitute criminal offenses, as defined by local, state, and federal laws.

For more information on how to identify and disable Internet file sharing please contact the Student Help desk.

The following is a copy of the notice users will receive upon termination of connection:

You have been blocked from using ResNet and the Wireless network.A network administrator has blocked your user account from using ResNet and wireless services. This action was predicated on a violation of the school’s “Acceptable Uses” computing policy. Specifically, we received a notification of copyright infringement from a copyright holder or an authorized agent of the copyright holder. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a federal law, we must disable your network access to stop the reported copyright violation. Your access will remain disabled until the issue is resolved. Your access to other services such as Academic Computing PC labs, ZMail and Blackboard was not blocked as a result of this specific complaint. A copy of the complaint notice was sent to your ZMail account. Please check your ZMail account from an Academic PC Lab for the details of the copyright infringement notice, and the procedure for re-establishing your ResNet and Wireless access. If you do not receive this notice in your Zmail account within the next 24 hours please contact the Student Help Desk at 845-257-3597 (x3597) and note the contents of this message. For more information about the policies covering ResNet, wireless, and computing resources in general, please see the “Policies” section of the acs.newpaltz.edu website.