From: "OHIO IT and the Office of Student Affairs" Date: April 25, 2007 1:41:25 PM EDT To: DV249701@ohio.edu Subject: New University Policy on Peer to Peer (P2P) File Sharing Reply-To: "IT Service Desk" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear OHIO Students, Ohio University's computer network is central to many academic, research and university-life activities, providing reliable communications not only on campus but also across the world. Because this network is a shared resource, we must ensure that it is available to all campus users equally. Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing currently consumes a disproportionate amount of campus technology resources, including both bandwidth and technical support. It also poses risks to the security of our network by opening ports on individual computers that can be used to spread viruses and spyware or to launch attacks against other computer systems. Finally, it often is used for illegal distribution of copyrighted works over our network. In accordance with OHIO's Computer and Network Use policy 91.003, we will begin restricting P2P file sharing on our campus network at 12:01 am on Friday morning, April 27, 2007. Beginning then, any campus computer that we detect in violation of this policy will have its Internet access disabled until its owner or primary user contacts the IT Service Desk at 740-593-1222 and agrees to work with us to resolve the problem and to abide by the university's Computer & Network Use policy in the future. A second violation on the same computer will result in that computer's Internet access being disabled until further action is taken by the appropriate disciplinary body. Students will be referred to University Judiciaries. Other network users will be handled in a manner consistent with established university disciplinary policy. This approach applies to all users of our campus network and will be enforced consistently. To learn more, visit: OHIO's Computer & Network Use policy can be found here: If you have any additional questions or need help with the configuration of your computer, please contact the Service Desk at 740-593-1222 or . There will be an information session about this new policy for all campus network users at noon on Thursday, April 26 in Baker Center 230. Sincerely, Mr. Brice Bible, Chief Information Officer Dr. Kent Smith, Vice President for Student Affairs -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (MingW32) iD8DBQFGL4RaGGrzgkOXNq0RArFKAJ0UP4T5R9oTNnHQRVQJK+uHhjR6JwCfVM2T Z0jF5zhQtjda9zyPEuh/Dlc= =dhMK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----