Introduction

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law on October 28, 1998, amended the U.S. copyright law to provide limitations for service provider liability relating to material online. Title II of the DMCA (section 512 of the Copyright Act, as amended, enacted on November 3, 1998) provides limitations on the service provider liability with respect to information residing, at direction of a user, on a system or network that the service provider controls or operates. The College in providing computers, storage, or network connection is a service provider. A College employee, student or guest in providing content is a user. To qualify for liability protection, the College is required to have a policy under which the computer accounts of users will be terminated if they repeatedly infringe the copyright works of others.

Policy Statement

Compliance with federal copyright law is expected of all students, faculty and staff at North Central College. “Copyright” is the legal protection for creative intellectual works, which is broadly interpreted to cover any expression of an idea. Text, graphics, art, photographs, music, and software are some examples of types of work protected by copyright.

You may “use” all or part of a copyrighted work only if (a) you have the copyright owner’s permission or (b) you qualify for a legal exception under the doctrine of “fair use.”

Copying, distributing, downloading, and uploading information on the Internet may infringe on the rights of the copyright owner. Violations of copyright law that occur on or over the College’s network or other computer resources may create liability for the College as well as the computer user. Therefore, repeated violations may result in revocation of computing resource privileges; faculty, staff or student disciplinary action; or legal action.

Procedures

Notice and Counter Notice When the College Receives an Infringement Claim Against You Based on Your Use.

Notice: A copyright owner, or person acting for the owner, must provide the College’s designated agent with written notice that the information residing on the College’s computer systems or networks is an infringement of the copyright. The notice must meet the requirements of 17 U.S.C. 512(c) (3) (A).

Removal of Information: The College will promptly remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material.

Notice to computer user: The College will promptly inform the computer account holder/user that the allegedly infringing material has been removed or access has been disabled.

Counter notice from computer user: The computer account holder/user may send the College’s designated agent, a written statement that the removal or disabling of access was based on (1) that the copyright owner is mistaken and that the work is lawfully posted or (2) that the work has been misidentified. This counter notice must meet the requirements of 17 U.S.C. 512(g) (3)

Transmittal of counter notice: The designated agent will promptly transmit a copy of the counter notice to the person who complained of infringement, and will inform that person that the removed material or disabled access will be restored in 10 business days.

Final College Action: The College will restore the material or access no less than 10 business days and no more than 14 business days from receipt of the counter notice, unless the person who complained of the infringement first notifies the designated agent that the complainant has filed a court action to restrain the computer account holder/user from the infringing activity that was the subject of the original notice to the College.