As a former user of a popular file-sharing program called Limewire, Aaron Hansen, a freshman physics and chemistry major, enjoyed the financial convenience of illegally downloading songs and movies for free from the Internet.

“I was downloading music and movies from the Limewire program,” Hansen said. “One movie was The Hangover, the other was Star Trek, and I also downloaded roughly 100 to 200 songs.”

However, the Office of Residence Life monitored Hansen’s online activity. As per NAU policy, Residence Life, through its network program ResNet, informed him of his violation of the Internet user policy.

“After receiving the message from ResNet, [it was] required that I delete all downloaded files and suggested I remove Limewire from my computer in order to prevent any future infractions,” Hansen said.

According to Paul Wagner, a team leader at the Student Technology Center, NAU’s role in watching over the networks on campus is minimal by design.

“It’s important to keep in mind that NAU is not the copyright police,” Wagner said. “We maintain a very open network, and there is very little traffic that we disallow on our ResNet network. We do not monitor the network traffic going to and from users’ computers.”

Wagner also stressed the concept of personal responsibility for students when utilizing the Internet.

“We put the responsibility on individual users to abide by the Network Acceptable Use Policy — to which all users must agree before registering a device on our network — and to accept the consequences of his or her own actions on our network,” Wagner said.

Still, when the university receives a complaint from a copyright holder, Wagner said they must act.

“Under the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], it is our obligation as the Internet Service Provider to remove the responsible user’s Internet access until we have had the opportunity to speak with the user, advise him or her about the complaint we have received, and give the user the opportunity to rectify the situation by uninstalling the file-sharing software and deleting the file they were illegally sharing,” Wagner said. “Once we speak with a student, we respond to the complaining organization, without any personal information about the individual, to let them know that we have taken care of the problem.”

Amanda Loveless, the director of Residence Life and the person responsible for dealing with second offenses against the network policy, said the number of cases of copyright violation she sees increased over the last few years.

“From the beginning of this semester, I have seen about 36 people for second-time DMCA complaints,” Loveless said. “When I started in my position about four years ago, I saw about one or two a semester. From what I have been told, the media companies have become a lot more sophisticated in how they track downloads and uploads.”

Though Hansen rectified the problem and avoided a second offense, the freshman said he was not informed on how to remove the offending materials from his computer.

“They did not supply me with any information on how to delete the program or what files to delete necessarily,” Hansen said. 

Wagner said ResNet is readily available to help students remove file-sharing software.

“We can assist over the phone, or through one of two types of in-person appointment: a ResNet appointment, in which we send a technician out to a student’s residence hall room to assist; or a walk-in appointment, where a student can bring a computer to the Student Technology Center’s office,” Wagner said.

Despite his offense, Hansen emphasized he understands and appreciates the work that ResNet does.

“I feel that ResNet is effectively using an ‘educating punishment’ system, as downloading files is a very common occurrence [for] young adults,” Hansen said. “I think that ResNet is knowledgeable about the legal policy on the use of the Internet and is doing their best to enforce such policies and at the same time teach ResNet users what those policies are.”

The Office of Residence Life is located in the South Learning Resource Center, in building 61.