Northern Illinois University respects copyrights and it is the policy of NIU to comply with copyright law. Using NIU's network to download or share copyrighted music, movies, television shows, games or any other copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner is a violation of NIU policies and may result in legal sanctions, judicial office penalties, and/or network termination, among other results.
NIU network or device users shall not store or otherwise make unauthorized copies of copyrighted material on or using NIU computer systems, networks or storage media, including but not limited to copyrighted music, movies, games, software, literary works, artistic works or any other copyrighted materials.
BitTorrent, Limewire, Gnutella, eDonkey, Ares, and other file sharing programs can transmit files on your computer to others in violation of copyright laws, with or without your knowledge. If these programs are on your computer, you will be responsible for any copyright violations that may result.
It is safe computing practice to disable file sharing when you install these products. See Turn off file sharing programs for information on disabling file sharing for these and other popular programs.
File sharing may open your computer to hackers and identity thieves. If you do not check the proper settings when you install certain file sharing software you could open access, not just to the files you intend to share, but also to other information on your hard drive, like email messages, photos, instant message logs, passwords, and pay pal or banking information you store on your computer.
While NIU does not generally monitor the content of your online activities, we may find that you have violated NIU policies and/or state and federal law during the normal course of network monitoring. Also, please note that many entities and organizations (for example, see the Recording Industry Association of America or RIAA for more information) locate people who are downloading or distributing copyrighted materials. If NIU receives notification from a copyright holder or their agent indicating that alleged copyrighted materials are being illegally distributed / downloaded from or to your computer or if NIU determines from network monitoring that you have violated university policies (see below for policies), at the very least, the following occurs:
If the violation or notice is for a second or more offense, if you do not comply with the e-mailed procedures, or if you fail to contact the ITS helpdesk within 7 days of being e-mailed notification of a claim, you may be referred to the NIU Judicial Office and/or your login ID/login account may be disabled. You may lose all access to the NIU network for an extended period of time. A first violation or notice may warrant a referral to the NIU Judicial Office and/or a loss of network privileges under certain circumstances. Other consequences for sharing materials in violation of copyright may include civil and/or criminal prosecution.
Check out these options for legal music, movies, and more!