Olin College’s Compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA)

The HEOA is a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. It includes provisions that are designed to reduce the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. These provisions include requirements that:

• Institutions make an annual disclosure that informs students that the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials may subject them to criminal and civil penalties and describes the steps that institutions will take to detect and punish illegal distribution of copyrighted materials.
• Institutions certify to the Secretary of Education that they have developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material.
• Institutions, to the extent practicable, offer alternatives to illegal file sharing.
• Institutions identify procedures for periodically reviewing the effectiveness of the plans to combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials.

This document outlines Olin College’s plan to comply with these requirements.

• In order to use institutional computing resources, all members of the Olin College Community, including enrolled students, endorse the Appropriate Use policy which contains a section on copyright compliance. Students endorse the policy via Appendix J in the Student Handbook and their acknowledgement of the receipt of the handbook. Staff acknowledge the policy through the receipt of the Staff Manual and Faculty acknowledge the policy through the receipt of the Faculty Manual.
• The Offices of Information Technology and the Library conduct an annual security awareness campaign that reminds members of the community of their obligation to follow various provisions of the Appropriate Use policy, including the provision on copyright infringement. The campaign includes information on copyright law, understanding and disabling file sharing, and legal ways to find and download music, videos and other copyrighted material presented during the student orientation period, through conversations with the Student IT working group and ongoing dialogues with faculty, staff and students.

Olin College complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The College vigorously attempts to identify alleged copyright infringers. In addition:

• The Olin College Offices of Student Life, Library and Information Technology communicate with alleged student copyright infringers, and warn them of the possible consequences of violating United States Copyright Law, Olin College policy and the Honor code. Repeated notices of possible copyright infringement can result in an investigation of alleged violations of the student Honor code and possible discipline based on the Honor code.
• The Olin College HR Office and Information Technology communicate with alleged staff and faculty copyright infringers, and warn them of the possible consequences of violating United States Copyright Law, Olin College policy and the Core Values. Repeated notices can result in documentation in personnel files and possible additional disciplinary action.
• The Information Technology department uses packet shaping to make peer-to-peer file sharing the lowest priority traffic on the residence hall network.
• All videos labeled with or without performance rights.
• Http://libguides.olin.edu/copyright and http://libguides.olin.edu/creativecommons copyright guides are linked from the Library website and class orientations include this material.

EDUCAUSE maintains and periodically reviews a list of Legal Alternatives for Downloading. This list is provided to students as part of the annual disclosure. See: http://www.educause.edu/legalcontent.

Olin College periodically reviews the effectiveness of this plan. In addition, the college independently reviews emerging technologies and discusses the availability of alternative strategies with other higher education institutions.