NIU receives nearly 50 cease and desist orders regarding illegal downloading of music and movies each month.

Despite the risk of being caught, hundreds of students continue to download movies and music off the Internet.

Third-party agents such as NetPD are hired by the music and movie industries to monitor Internet traffic on college campuses. They look for the transfer of copyright-protected files and then identify the guilty parties.

NIU’s Information Technology Services receives the cease and desist orders from NetPD because of students who download music and movies off the Internet in the residence halls. After getting the orders, ITS calls guilty students and has them sign a document stating they never will download music illegally again.

“Essentially what the document says is that the student agrees to stop downloading copyrighted material, or else the judicial system will be forced to take action against them,” said Wally Czerniak, ITS associate vice president. “Legal action isn’t pursued against them if they stop, but if they keep doing what they’re doing, then the students responsible could be facing a pretty big lawsuit.”

When someone from NIU is identified for uploading copyright-protected material from his or her computer, NIU is forced to take action or face the risk of sharing liability as the owner of the network resource, Czerniak said.

Larry Bolles, director of the University Judicial Office, said the university takes the issue of illegal downloading very seriously.

“The music industry takes this very seriously, and so do we,” Bolles said. “Any student who is caught downloading illegal material on university computers risks losing [his or her] access to university computers and space in the residence halls and can be suspended from the university altogether for one semester.”

However, the risk of a lawsuit hasn’t stopped all students from downloading copyrighted material off the Internet, and Web sites such as Kazaa and Morpheus have become popular as a way to obtain it.

“Downloading music off of the Internet should remain free because artists are being compensated for their music anyway,” junior communication major Matt Robinson said. “Listening to the music downloaded actually helps to motivate students to go out and buy the CDs.”