Copyright at UVa: Students
Alternatives for Downloading Music and Movies
As you know, downloading copyrighted music and movies without permission is illegal. For more information about copyright issues, please visit these pages:
- UVa Library's page on copyright
- UVa Policy on Respect for Copyrights
- Copyright at UVa - for Students
- Copyright at UVa - for Employees
Need a song? Want to watch a movie and it's 2:00 AM? Rather than illegally downloading it, check out the EduCause web page that provides a long list of legal sources of music, TV shows, movies, and videos, which we recommend you use instead of illegal file-sharing or downloading.
Don't think you'll get caught-think again! As evidenced by recent lawsuits, illegal downloading of music and movies can be extremely costly. Don't believe us? In February 2010, Whitney Harper, a college student, was ordered by a federal appeals court to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $27,750. This is $750 a track for illegally sharing 37 songs when she was a high school cheerleader. Joel Tenenbaum's illegal filesharing troubles started while he was a student at Boston University, but they didn't end when he graduated. Visit his web site and decide if you can afford the "free" music and movies you get by file sharing.
Wired has an entire category devoted to illegal copyright litigation you might want to look at before you turn on your P2P software.
Page Updated: 2012-02-16
