<![CDATA[<p>Does Rose Hulman allow peer to peer file sharing as long as the files are not actually shared on the network; is it acceptable to download but not share the files?</p><p><span id="bodyfont" style="font-family:Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><font size="2">
<p>Peer-to-peer file sharing technology is neither illegal nor unethical, as long as the owner/copyright holder has explicitly made the content available for that type of distribution. Some small, up-and-coming bands will do this, and there are movie trailers and open source software that can all be shared using p2p technology.</p>
<p>Almost all commercial music, movies, books, and any other type of content, however, does not allow for this type of distribution. That means you are stealing whether you upload or download the content. If you're caught you can be fined up to $250,000. And it doesn't matter whether you're sharing on Rose-Hulman's internal network or out on the Internet, the act of redistributing (receiving or sharing) any content without explicit redistribution rights is illegal (and unethical and wrong). The short answer to the student's question is almost certainly no, because the vast majority of content shared on peer-to-peer networks is commercial in nature and redistribution is not allowed.</p>
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