Duke Time Warp

I suppose this is more geared towards the undergrads here, but apparently Duke is still downloading music and movies like it's 2002...

Dear students:

Over the past several years, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs
(KaZaA, Limewire, AresWarez, BitTorrent, etc.) have become very popular
for sharing files across the Internet. Be aware that there are two
problems with these popular programs:

1) If the files being shared are protected by copyright (as the vast
majority of songs and movies are), sharing them is a violation of
federal law.  In the past, college students have been the target of
lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and
others for copyright violation, and many have paid large fees to settle
those lawsuits and avoid going to court. Many Duke students have been
targeted for such action. Beyond the risk of lawsuits, violation of
copyright law may also result in suspension of Duke network privileges
and/or disciplinary action.

2) They consume excessive amounts of Duke's available bandwidth,
resulting in slower network speeds and interfering with other uses of
the network.

The copyright industry has been increasing the pressure it puts on
universities regarding allegations of copyright infringement. The
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced in 2007 that
they would sue students for copyright infringement, but that they would
first send the university a settlement offer, asking that the offers be
forwarded to the appropriate student. The RIAA has sent hundreds of
settlement offers to students at many universities.  These settlement
offers have typically been in the range of $3,000 to $5,000 per student.

Student Affairs has a website with additional detailed information about
the processes followed by Duke when we receive copyright infringement
complaints, notices to preserve data, settlement offers, or subpoenas.
The website is located here:

 http://deanofstudents.studentaffairs.duke.edu/filesharing/index.html

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all students that
complying with copyright law is an essential part of the Duke Community
Standard and of being a Duke student.  It is also the right thing to do
as a member of an intellectual community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Laurence Moneta, Vice President for Student Affairs
Tracy Futhey, Vice President for Information Technology

"over the past several years.." kills me every time.