Felbry College School of Nursing is committed to compliance with all Federal laws (Title 17, United States Code) regarding copyright. Copyright is essential a form of protection for individuals who have developed, created or authored literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is extended to both published, as well as unpublished works, and is extended to any author, regardless of their nationality or domicile.
All members of Felbry College – students, faculty and staff members and administrators – are responsible for complying with the requirements of the copyright law. It will be assumed that the copyright law applies to all material, unless one of the following applies:
The work is in the public domain, including works by the U.S. Government;
Note that all printed materials – in text or digital form – should be assumed to be copyrighted. The use of a copyrighted notice © is no longer required. The unauthorized use of copyrighted material is called an infringement.
As noted above, Federal copyright protection is extended to digital media accessible through the Internet. Uploading or downloading digital material or works is an infringement of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights. This includes peer-to-peer file sharing.
All members of Felbry College community who disregard this policy do so at their own risk and assume any liability, which may include criminal and/or civil penalties, for violating the policy. Those penalties are summarized below.
Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement.
Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or “statutory” damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For “willful” infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys’ fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505. Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.
For more information, please see the website of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov.
To protect their intellectual property, companies have licensed hundreds of digital partners that offer a range of legal downloading options, including download and subscription services, legitimate peer-to-peer services, video-on-demand, podcasts and CD kiosks.
For a list of sources that offer legal downloading sites, access
http://www.campusdownloading.com/legal.htm or
http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/LegalDownloading/3338 .