Although illegal downloading of music and movies has been a problem in the past, Kent State doesn’t seem to be an area of potential risk for book piracy.

Kimberly Price, an IT security engineer, said she hasn’t seen much activity.

“I’ve only seen one actual book piracy,” said Price, who’s been at Kent State since 2006.

The case Price saw involved “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” that was digitally taken from the Internet in March of 2008. As a result, J.K. Rowling’s lawyer contacted the Office of Security and Compliance.

Once a piece of work has been identified, steps need to be taken right away.

“We have to notify the infringer,” Price said.

The office contacts the infringer through e-mail and asks him or her to remove the digital copy right away. From there, the individual needs to watch an educational video.

Through research, Price was able to find two more additional works that were taken off the Internet illegally. A Spiderman comic book was taken off the Internet in June 2007 and a “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” audio book was stolen in 2006.

Brendan Walsh, director of security and access management, also agreed that book piracy hasn’t been much of a problem.

Walsh said the agent who identifies book piracy might not be as firm as some other places may be.

Walsh said illegal downloading of books might not be as serious to some as illegal music downloading is.

“They feel like they’re losing money,” Walsh said.

Overall, Walsh is glad Kent State students don’t appear to be abusing privileges to get books.

“There’s a lot of ways to get books for free, like at the library and renew them,” Walsh said.

If copyright infringement of a book is detected, the security office will e-mail the student and let them know of the infringement notice. The student will then lose their Internet access and will be required to do the following in order to regain access:

• Remove the book from their computer and stop all illegal activity involving infringement.

• View an online educational video.

• Hand deliver a signature that the student acknowledged the e-mail notice to the security office and let them know the steps above have been done.

For a second offense, the guidelines are the same with the exception of a few added requirements:

• The student must verify with ResNet that all illegal activity has been stopped.

• After the educational video, the student must pass a quiz over information shown in the video.

• The student must hand deliver a signature plus the educational quiz to the security office and let them know the steps above have been done.

For a third offense as well as future offenses, more penalties will be taken:

• The student must attend a hearing with Judicial Affairs for further consequences and will gain his or her Internet access back pending Judicial Affairs hearing.

Contact technology reporter Kaylee Remington

at [email protected].