MCON File Sharing Policy
All members of the Methodist College of Nursing community, including staff, faculty and students, are required to follow the technology eligibility and usage policy of both the College and our parent organization, Methodist Medical Center. Methodist provides the network for the College and requires that each member of the College community sign and date a Technology Usage Agreement. You can obtain the form from the MCON Database Administrator. The technology eligibility and usage policy requires that you not share copyrighted material over the Methodist's network, via web pages, peer to peer file-sharing software, and email. This applies to personally owned computers as well as College owned computers, if they are accessing the Methodist network.
Any sharing of copyrighted materials on the MCON network, without proper permission, is a violation of the policy and may lead to disciplinary proceedings and, in some cases, legal action.
Internet traffic and accesses on the Methodist network are managed by the firewall solution in place. The firewall is configured to only allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic from the "inside" (secure) network to the "outside" (non-secure) network. Peer to Peer sites, SMTP and Instant messaging are examples of the traffic that is blocked. Outside (non-secure) traffic is blocked by default and exceptions are made on an as needed basis for services such as email, internal web sites and information sharing. Business needs and applications drive exception requirements. A formal request is sent to the Information Technology department to request an exception identifying the business requirement, application and IT resources that will use the application.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Software
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing allows users to share files online through an informal network of computers running the same software. File-sharing using programs such KaZaA, Grokster, Morpheus, Gnutella, etc. are network-based programs that allow users to download and distribute music files from computer to computer across networks using P2P protocols. You could download copyright-protected material, pornography or viruses unintentionally. Or you could mistakenly allow other people to copy files you don't mean to share, since file sharing software allows you to search the Internet for files. These programs are blocked on the Methodist network.
Recreational downloading of copyrighted materials is a violation of both federal law and College policy. The use of file-sharing (peer-to-peer or P2P) programs to trade music and movies over the Internet is illegal and violates copyright laws. The distribution of copyrighted material from your computer, including music, games and videos, for which you do not have the owner's permission is a violation of federal law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The law is enforced by federal investigators, by the owners of copyrighted materials and organizations acting on their behalf.
Copyrighted Materials
When using a computer network to share copyrighted materials with others, both the people making copies (downloading) and those offering such materials to others (serving) via a P2P network are infringing upon copyright owners' rights and violating federal and international copyright law. Copyright infringement occurs whenever you make or distribute songs, videos, software, cartoons, photographs, stories and novels - without authorization from the copyright owner. Infringement can also occur when one person purchases an authorized copy but allows others to reproduce additional "pirated" copies.
Methodist's policy regarding student use of computer resources clearly states a student who reproduces or distributes copyrighted materials in electronic form without permission from the material's owner may be removed from the Methodist computer network and may face further disciplinary action or even legal action.
HIPAA
All members of the College community must abide by the Workstation Usage Policy outlined in the HIPAA policies of Methodist Medical Center. This policy can be found on the Intranet at https://pnp.mmci.org/doc.aspx?pID=1215.
