Academic Integrity in a Digital Age

The use of ICT for transferring of information from one place to another has led to some consequences. We have been hearing information being trapped, copied, duplicated, redistributed and even sold for economic purposes. In academic, universities provide its staff and students electronic access to resources they need to support university mission and vision. When accessing these resources, the appropriate usage of the internet with respect to copyright law is encouraged. There are policies governing downloading and sharing of copyrighted written documents, music, videos, games and others.

Computer software can be used to facilitate sharing between computers. P2P (peer-to-peer) software is any file sharing software (such as BitTorrent, Morpheus, BearShare, GroksterLimewire, Gnutella, and eDonkey). These software allow users to both share content from their computers and to connect to others, and similarly configuring computers, for the purpose of downloading or transferring electronic content. These technologies of sharing files are legal, simply they enable file sharing between computers, however, as many technologies, users can use them legally or illegally. Although the software itself has nothing to do with copyright infringement, but the use of P2P software to upload, download and share copyrighted materials can violate the rights of the owner. In P2P file sharing context, infringement may occur if someone is copying and sharing published papers, notes, videos, music, and any other copyrighted materials through the use of P2P technology, purchasing a CD or DVD and producing copies, posting or plagiarising copyrighted materials, and downloading anything from which a user does not have prior ownership.