UC student cited for illegal file-sharing knocks down '12 myths' in video

"Everybody does it." Nope. About 20 percent of students share files illegally via the Internet. Four in five do not.

"I can't find legal versions of what I want." Umm, often that means "I can't find free versions of what I want." Check free, legal sites like Hulu, YouTube and Clicker.

"If my roommate downloads, that doesn't affect me." Actually ... if the roommate uses an Internet port assigned to you, you share the violation and risk the penalties. Several UC Davis students could tell you this firsthand.

These three quotes come from "12 File Sharing Myths in Two Minutes," a new animated video created by some undergraduates at UCLA.

Like everywhere else in the United States, downloading or uploading copyrighted material without the owner's permission is not allowed at UC Davis. Thousands of UC Davis students have lost campus Internet access because of illegal file-sharing. Copyright owners have sued some of them for thousands of dollars. Read more at getlegal.ucdavis.edu.

One of the undergraduates who made the "12 myths" video was cited this year for illegal file-sharing of movies over the Internet while he lived in student housing. He also created a second video, "A File Sharing Message to UCLA Student Residents," which says more about how students get caught.

"The one on file-sharing myths is particularly good; these are the common myths at Davis, too," said Jan Carmikle, senior intellectual property licensing officer and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act designated agent for UC Davis. "Please share these videos liberally."