Educating the Penn State community about copyright infringement is a long-term commitment of the university, Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson said.

This commitment was demonstrated last week when Erickson sent an e-mail message about infringement to 110,000 members of the university.

"[The e-mail] is part of a rather aggressive campaign to educate the university about copying illegal material off the Internet," Erickson said.

The e-mail summarized the penalties offenders will face from Penn State and the federal government if convicted of copyright infringement.

Erickson said the e-mail was not prompted by the lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America against four students last week for offering access to copyrighted material from their universities' networks.

The e-mail was not specifically timed but rather was part of Penn State's ongoing efforts to educate students and staff about copyright laws.

This is not the first communication Penn State has had with students and faculty warning of the consequences faced from copying illegal material.

Erickson said that when students are granted an access account at Penn State, they must agree to use the account appropriately and legally.

The allowance of 1.5 gigabytes per week for each student to download and upload material from the Internet tries to prevent illegal activity, Erickson added.

However, too much bandwidth is often used when students are constantly connected to the Internet and sharing files.

"When students leave their computers on, and they are constantly connected to the Web, they are acting as a server for people all over the world," Erickson said.

In a written response by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) to Erickson concerning the content of the e-mail, Michael O'Connor, USG director of information technology affairs, said the e-mail failed to mention the options faculty and students have if they feel they are wrongfully charged with such an offense.

"The university has put too much one-sided emphasis on the issue," O'Connor said.

"The policy of USG is that copyright infringement is illegal. [Students] are forced to rely on the administration to gauge the importance of such matters," he said.

USG President Rubina Javeri said the reason USG drafted the letter to Erickson was to make sure students' First Amendment rights to obtain and access information over the Internet are not violated.

"The fine line between downloaded material for personal use and illegal activity needed to be recognized," Javeri said.

University President Graham Spanier spoke before Congress earlier this year explaining the importance of file sharing as an educational tool.

Erickson said the process of educating the Penn State community about copyright laws will continue throughout the university.