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The 2008 Digital Millennium Copyright Act stipulates that every college in the U.S. must either have installed software to block illegal file-sharing or have created some other procedure for preventing it. Under the law, student violators face fines from $750 to $30,000 for each song or movie downloaded. Campus punishments vary.
College students who download music and movies from peer-to-peer file-sharing programs such as LimeWire and KaZaA will find themselves cut off when they return to campus this fall.

Every college across the country must either have installed software to block illegal file-sharing or have created some other procedure for preventing it. The requirement is part of the 2008 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which took effect July 1.

Some schools have been working to comply with the provisions for several years.

Under the law, student violators face fines from $750 to $30,000 for each song or movie downloaded. If a court determines the infringement was "willful," that fine can be as much as $250,000, although some judges have reduced higher fines, saying they're unreasonable. Schools' liability is limited if they cooperate with law enforcement.

Campus punishments vary. The University of North Carolina Web site lists expulsion as a possible consequence. Vassar College requires first-time offenders to perform 20 hours of "sanctioned service" and pay a $25 fine. Second-time offenders face double the service requirements, double the fines and loss of Internet access, says spokesman Jeff Kosmacher.

Most schools use commercial software on their networks to restrict downloads, says Gregory Jackson, vice president for policy analysis and advocacy at Educause, a non-profit that focuses on higher education and technology Relevant Products/Services. Companies such as Red Lambda, based in Longwood, Fla., and Audible Magic in Los Gatos, Calif., automate a large portion of the process.

These products look for file-sharing programs and block them. They shut down a user's Web access for a period of time, and the user must remove the file-sharing program and any files that were downloaded before access is restored.

But some schools, such as UCLA, have opted to find other ways of monitoring downloads. Using commercial software would violate the University of California's privacy policy, say Steve Montiel, UC system spokesman, and Kent Wada, UCLA director of strategic information Relevant Products/Services technology and privacy policy. Every school in UC's system uses the same guidelines to address file-sharing, and Wada says it's working.

When a UCLA student is caught illegally sharing files on the school's network Relevant Products/Services, Internet access is locked and the student gets a letter from the dean of students. Software and songs or movies must be removed from the computer, and students must attend a session explaining why sharing copyrighted material is wrong. Repeat offenders lose Internet privileges for the year.

"The entertainment industry wants immediate action, and who can blame them? But the higher-education community wants to have a 'teachable moment' approach, where we are trying to teach our students about what the law is," Wada says.

Despite all the risk Relevant Products/Services associated with file-sharing, students will keep downloading, says Christopher Palmer, 22, a senior at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, who was caught using file-sharing programs this past school year. "People will always find a way around things," he says.

Palmer says he has. He has moved off-campus and away from the school's security Relevant Products/Services system.

But Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, says that even students who live off-campus aren't immune. The financial loss to artists is unquantifiable, he says, adding that the industry's best customers have become its worst offenders.

"If a student is file-sharing at home, then we are dealing with that person by sending notices to their (Internet provider) just like we send notices to universities," Sherman says.