“Downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without proper consent constitutes an infringement.

“U of L’s policy is the same as Title 17 of the United States Code,” said Gombosky. However, he did face punishment from the university for violating its Internet usage policy.īrenda Gombosky, director of IT enterprise security, outlined U of L’s policy on matters of copyright infringement. The student said he has faced no legal action from Sony Pictures. The courts decide whether or not the case has warrant and, if so, the company can then take the user to court for damages.” Once the companies have a list of IP addresses of those downloading and uploading, the companies then have to go to a court to subpoena the owner of that IP address for the identity of the user. “These programs all share your IP address with others downloading the same file, so others know where to send what you’re downloading. “Film companies use the same programs used by downloaders, such as uTorrent or FrostWire, to track IP addresses,” said Miller. Jon Miller, a computer science major, explained how companies such as Sony Pictures can track illegal file sharing. He was informed that Sony Pictures had notified the university, saying that the copyrighted material being shared on FrostWire was coming from a U of L IP address.

“I was sent an e-mail from U of L the next morning,” said the student, who wishes to remain anonymous. He was unknowingly sharing the file on U of L’s wireless Internet while he was using his laptop in class. He then brought his laptop to class with him and logged onto U of L’s network. As a result, when his download completed, he began sharing the file with other FrostWire users. As the student tells it, he had forgotten to turn off FrostWire’s sharing properties. In January, a University of Louisville graduate student was using the peer-to-peer file-sharing program called FrostWire in the privacy of his home to illegally download a film copyrighted by Sony Pictures.

Frostwire official site