VCOM Faculty Handbook

Requesting Copyright Permission Respect for intellectual property is essential in an academic community. VCOM supports full utilization of the rights of fair use and the rights granted to educational institutions and libraries under copyright law. Where uses of copyrighted works of authorship will exceed those permitted by fair use and other statutory exceptions, permission to use the copyrighted works of authorship should be obtained from the copyright owner. All faculty requesting and obtaining copyright permission shall do so by submitting a request to the VCOM librarian. The librarian shall retain a record of all requests and responses. Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a federal law that was enacted in 1998 to combat the theft of electronic media such as software, games, photography, videos, or music over the internet. The DMCA is a complex act designed to manage digital copyright infringement and liability in many ways, including but not limited to the following: • imposes rules prohibiting the circumvention of technological protection measures in place on copyrighted materials • imposes rules prohibiting the production and distribution of any technology (hardware or software) whose main purpose is to circumvent copyright protection mechanisms • sets limitations on copyright infringement liability for internet service providers (such as UVA) The DMCA has five titles, or sections, with Title II having the most immediate impact on the VCOM community. Title II outlines certain legal duties with which Online Service Providers (OSPs) must comply in order to limit their legal liabilities in the event a user of their service violates copyright laws. An OSP is defined as "an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications". For purposes of the DMCA, Virginia Tech is regarded as an OSP for users of the VCOM information technology infrastructure. Pursuant to the DMCA, an OSP is required to name an official agent with the US Copyright Office. This agent is the designated official to be notified by a copyright holder in the event of an alleged copyright infringement by anyone who utilizes that OSP. Since Virginia Tech is the OSP for VCOM, Virginia Tech has designated such an agent. The OSP is obligated to inform users when their accounts and services will be terminated due to repeated violation of copyright or other intellectual property laws. When Virginia Tech receives a complaint takedown notice for infringed activity of copyrighted material emanating from any public facing VCOM servers or shared social website, VCOM’s Vice President for Operations and Assistant Vice President of IT Operations are notified immediately. VCOM’s IT Department will expeditiously remove or disable access to infringing activity. No Electronic Theft Act Congress enacted the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act in 1997 to facilitate prosecution of copyright violation on the internet. The NET Act makes it a federal crime to reproduce, distribute, or share copies of electronic copyrighted works such as songs, movies, games, or software programs, even if the person copying or distributing the material acts without commercial purpose and/or receives no private financial gain. Before this law took effect, people who intentionally distributed copied software over the internet did not face criminal penalties if they did not profit from their actions. Electronic copyright infringement carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The NET Act is applicable in situations such as running a file sharing application with outgoing transfers enabled,

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