Wednesday, December 1, 1999

Oregon Student Sentenced to 2 Years' Probation in Copyright Case By KELLY McCOLLUM A University of Oregon student who pleaded guilty in August to charges that he had illegally distributed copyrighted materials using the campus computer network was sentenced last week by a federal judge to two years' probation, with limited access to the Internet. The student, Jeffrey G. Levy, was charged in January with criminal copyright infringement after university officials noticed an unusually large amount of data traveling over the campus network. They traced the traffic to Mr. Levy and, because of the volume of material involved, contacted law-enforcement agencies. Mr. Levy's computer contained thousands of music recordings, digital movies, and commercial software applications, all freely available to anyone who cared to download them from his Web site. His collection included illegal MP3 music files, which have been a growing concern for college network administrators. Mr. Levy was the first person to be charged under the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act. He faced a penalty of up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines, depending on the value of the copyrighted material he distributed. Sean Hoar, the assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case, said his office had conservatively estimated the value of the software on Mr. Levy's computer at $70,000, but could only accurately determine that about $5,000 worth had been distributed. Had Mr. Levy not pleaded guilty, said Mr. Hoar, prosecutors might have investigated further, possibly increasing their estimate and leading to a stiffer sentence than the two years probation. As part of his probation, Mr. Levy will have limited access to the Internet, primarily so he can do research for academic purposes. He will also be subject to periodic drug testing because he tested positive for marijuana use before his trial, Mr. Hoar said. While Mr. Levy's punishment was milder than it could have been, the case may serve as a warning to Internet users, and particularly college students, who might be considering similar copyright violations. "It lets people know that we're going to hold them accountable for copyright infringement on the Internet," said Mr. Hoar. Like other recent cases involving MP3 distribution, Mr. Levy's could raise awareness about music copyrights, Mr. Hoar said. "People are being educated and realizing it is a crime, like walking out of a music store with CD's in their pockets they haven't paid for," he said. While it is unusual for a university to turn in one of its students for copyright violations, Oregon's director of computing, Joanne Hugi, said the institution's actions were guided by its policy on acceptable use of computer resources. The policy prohibits the copying of proprietary software and states that such copying can result in "criminal prosecution or a civil suit for copyright infringement, or both." Ms. Hugi said it was the scale of Mr. Levy's violation -- his site transferred 1.7 gigabytes of data in one two-hour period -- that led the university to call in outside law enforcement. Background stories from The Chronicle: How Forcefully Should Universities Enforce Copyright Law on Audio Files? (11/19/99) Oregon Student Is Convicted of Providing Pirated Music on University Web Site (9/3/99) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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