Information Services Newsletter
Peer-to Peer Software and Copyrighted Material

It has become apparent that some users have installed peer-to-peer (P2P ) software on computer systems under their control and have been using it to obtain copyrighted material, e.g. music or video files. Quite apart from the illicit nature of this "sharing" of copyrighted material, this use of P2P software can impose very large loads on the network and is thus disruptive to other users.

 It is accepted that there are many legitimate uses for P2P software but users are warned that downloading of copyrighted material without consent of the copyright holder is illegal. The fact that the material may be available on a P2P network does not constitute the copyright owner's consent. Users are further warned that excess use of bandwidth caused by installation of P2P software constitutes a breach of the University's Acceptable Use Policy.

Brian Beesley