Higher Education Opportunity Act - Annual Notice

Pacific University Students, 

University Information Services is responsible for responding to complaints of copyright infringement by members of the Pacific University community. We work with Student Life and other departments to address each complaint. As a student, you are responsible for accessing copyrighted materials in an appropriate manner.

Please take a moment to review the following materials: a link to our complete copyright notification and a summary of that notification. If you have any questions, please send them to copyright@pacificu.edu

Thank you.

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Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) Notification

Summary of Notification:

HEOA: H.R 4137, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) includes provisions that are designed to reduce the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.  

Copyright Infringement: 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. 

Filtering: Pacific University currently employs bandwidth-shaping technology to prioritize network traffic. We limit the amount of bandwidth available to P2P applications but we do not filter such applications since much of the traffic is legal. 

Investigation: The university investigates each copyright violation complaint by identifying community members suspected of using the network resources at the time of the infringement and, where students are involved, giving this information to the Department of Student Affairs. 

Corrective Actions: First time offenders must meet with a university representative to be trained and given information regarding copyright law. Any identified illegal content is then removed from the student’s computer.  Subsequent violations and lack of compliance with copyright laws may result in disciplinary actions being taken by the university, which are handled according to the appropriate student handbook procedures.

Legal Sources: The EDUCAUSE website provides links to sites that provide numerous options for obtaining music, videos, and other digital content in a legal manner. Members of the Pacific community are encouraged to take advantage of these legitimate sources of digital content.

Civil and Criminal Penalties: In addition to corrective action taken by the university, students who share copyrighted material may also be liable for civil and criminal penalties.

These can include:

• Actual damages or “statutory” damages of $750 to $30,000 per work infringed.
• Up to $150,000 per work infringed for “willful” infringement.
• Costs and attorneys’ fees. 
• For large violations, imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.

For more information on potential penalties, please refer to the US Copyright Office as well as Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505.