Copyright Information

Copyright Holder

The copyright holder is the person who retains the copyright. They have the right to control how their works are published, distributed, and sold, and the right to be paid for the use of their work. A number of copyright infringement lawsuits and subpoenas have been filed by major companies and their respective industry associations. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Kent State University is required to take steps to promptly remove or disable access to any copyrighted material that is being shared illegally from within its network.

The Copyright Office maintains information on copyright holders. To request information regarding copyright holders, send in a request form along with a small fee, and the office will send you the information. The form is available at their website: http://www.copyright.gov.

You could be violating federal copyright law if:

• You join a file-sharing network, using Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software such as FrostWire, BitTorrent, Utorrent, Morpheus, LimeWire and AresWarz, etc. and download unauthorized copies of copyrighted material.
• You receive an email attachment with copyrighted material in it, and you decide that you want to show it to others by forwarding the email.
• You make a copy of a song from a CD that you bought; but then you make the music file(s) available for download by sharing them on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
• You burn copies of music you have downloaded onto a CD, which you then give to all your friends.
• To gain access to copyrighted material on the computers of other network members, you pay a fee to purchase file-sharing software (P2P) that is not authorized to distribute or make copies of the copyrighted material. You then download copyrighted material that you do not have the explicit permission of the copyright owner to use.
• You transfer copyrighted material using an instant messaging service.

​Remember that buying a song, CD or movie, does not give you permission to distribute copies amongst your friends or others!

Copyright infringement is the distribution of copyrighted materials without the express written consent of the copyright holder. Just because you paid for the material does not mean you have the right to distribute it in any form.

If you do not have permission from the specific copyright holder to distribute/give away the file, and you share it with your family/friends or the world, then you are guilty of copyright infringement.

This page is maintained by the Department of Infrastructure Engineering's DMCA Compliance Team
Email: copyright@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-3929